Oft-repeated stories such as Columbus or the Pilgrims' Thanksgiving tend to lose their punch after a while. Rather than sticking with the same old "Write a story about leaving your home and friends to settle in a new place far away," try to get fourth-graders to think outside the box and put some humor and originality into their writing by writing from an unexpected viewpoint. For example, "Imagine you are a stowaway rat on the Santa Maria (or the Mayflower) and tell the story of the sea crossing." Or, "Pretend that you are a chicken on a wagon train headed west. Tell about life on the trail."
Fourth-grade writing curriculum often calls for persuasive writing pieces, leading teachers to ask students to write things like advertisements or opinion pieces. Take these assignments a step further by giving the kids an actual audience for their persuasive abilities beyond the walls of the classroom. For example, ask each student to select a charitable organization to research and create a brochure describing the organization, its history, work and need for volunteers or money. The final piece should strive to convince people to help the organization by volunteering or giving money. Distribute the brochures at school or through the organization.
For every poll, there is someone who wrote the questions. Provide a topic or allow students to choose a topic and assign them to "Create a poll with at least five questions about your classmates' viewpoints on the chosen subject." Make a class set of each poll and pass them around so everyone can answer the questions in writing. Return the polls to the original writer to compile the data and create graphs and charts to share the results with the class.
Children are no exception to the rule that "everyone has an opinion." But instead of burying the opinions in a pile of school assignments, ask students to choose an issue they care about, such as conservation, environmental concerns or helping around the community. Have them each write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper or the school paper expressing an opinion on the matter politely and respectfully and mail it or submit it to the newspaper office. Since the local paper may not be able to print all the letters, the teacher should speak to the newspaper office and ask for a representative of the newspaper to visit the class and respond to the letters; or arrange a field trip to the newspaper to get feedback on their letters from an editor.