The end of the year offers opportunities for some engaging opinion writing! Have 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students reflect on the school year while practicing their writing skills. Use the EOY opinion writing prompts below as inspiration.
If your students are still struggling with opinion writing, then these opinion writing tips and paragraph frames can help provide scaffolding.
1. FAVORITE MEMORY
Have upper elementary students reflect on the school year and think about their favorite memory. Then, they can share their opinion on it, explaining why it was their favorite.
Combine this with a fun countdown to the end of the school year activity, having one student share their favorite memory each day.
2. MOST IMPORTANT THING THEY LEARNED
3. ONE THING THE TEACHER SHOULD CHANGE NEXT YEAR
4. BEST BOOK
5. BOOK AWARDS
This fun EOY writing idea came from teacher Carrie Jones. It's similar to the "best book" prompt, but has a little more nuance. Have students write opinion pieces explaining why they would give an award to a certain book or character. For example, students get give an award for the book with the:
- best illustrations
- best villain
- kindest character
- best author
- funniest character
- best chapter book series
- character who learned the most
If you give awards to students at the end of year year, giving awards to books might be a fun addition to your end of year party.
6. HOW I CHANGED FOR THE BETTER
Encourage a growth mindset in students by asking them to reflect on how they have changed over the past school year. Have them write an opinion piece explaining how they changed and how that change was for the better.
Students can reflect on how they grew academically or how they improved their character.
7. KINDEST THING SOMEONE DID
8. BEST PLACE TO TRAVEL FOR THE SUMMER
Have students share where they would most like to travel this summer and explain why.
Note: You know your students. If you have students who might be hurt by hearing about the fun travel plans of others, knowing that they will not go anywhere fun this summer, this might not be the best option.