text: The second reason why teachers should design their own summer assignments is because they can use summer assignments to help students with subjects that have been historically struggled with. Teachers are aware of which subjects students generally struggle with, and can use that information to help future students. Teachers can use the summer assignment for this by creating prior knowledge about the more difficult subjects. If the students are already somewhat familiar with the material, it will take less class time to teach it. This leaves more time to answer individual questions and help students understand the specific parts that the class is struggling with. An example of how a teacher could do this is by assigning a research paper. If the students are free to do their own research, they will develop an interest in the topic over the course of the writing. The students will be essentially teaching an entire difficult subject to themselves. The students could then present their essay to the class to show their individual findings. The class will teach each other about their own findings until every individual is competent in the subject. The teacher's contact information should be made available so that any questions that come up can be answered, but the students should rely mostly on other credible sources for their information.