1. Phonics: Building on what was learned in earlier grades, fourth-grade students need to master more complex sound-letter patterns, including multi-syllable words and silent letters, and use them to decode and spell words.
2. Vocabulary: Students need to continue to learn new words and their meanings through context, word-picture associations, root words, and word families. They also need to learn how to use context clues to determine the meaning of unknown words.
3. Reading comprehension: Students need to learn how to make inferences and predictions, identify main idea and details, understand cause and effect, and analyze characters and plot in literature.
4. Grammar: Students need to learn more advanced grammar concepts such as verb tense, subject-verb agreement, punctuation, and sentence structure.
5. Writing: Students need to learn how to write complete essays, using proper grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. They also need to learn how to use descriptive language, and organize their thoughts using outlines and graphic organizers.
6. Handwriting: Students need to continue to improve their handwriting legibility and neatness.
7. Speaking and listening: Students need to learn how to participate in group discussions and presentations, as well as how to ask and answer questions and give effective oral presentations.
8. Literature: Students need to be exposed to a variety of literature, such as novels, historical fiction, and poetry, and learn how to analyze and interpret them.
9. Informational text: Students need to learn how to understand and analyze nonfiction texts, such as biographies, articles, and historical documents, and how to locate information using text features.
10. Research skills: Students need to learn how to locate and use appropriate sources for research projects and how to cite sources correctly.

It’s important to note that these are just some of the topics that fourth-grade students should learn, and that the specific curriculum and objectives will vary depending on the school district and state. Additionally, as a teacher, you should also be aware of different learning styles and strategies to adapt the teaching to meet the needs of all students.

Essential Vocabulary that fourth graders need to learn.

1. Sight words: Fourth-grade students need to continue to learn and practice basic and advanced sight words, as well as irregular sight words that don’t follow regular phonics rules.
2. High-frequency words: Students need to learn words that are commonly used in reading and writing, such as “although,” “because,” “before,” “could,” “should,” etc.
3. Vocabulary: Students need to learn words that are specific to certain subject matter, such as science, social studies, math, and literature.
4. Root words: Students need to learn the meanings of root words and how to use them to determine the meaning of other words.
5. Synonyms and Antonyms: Students need to learn words that have similar or opposite meanings, and how to use them to expand their vocabulary and improve their writing.
6. Homophones: Students need to learn words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings, such as “flower” and “flour” and “their” and “there”
7. Idioms: Students need to learn common idioms and phrases and their meanings, such as “the ball is in your court” and “the cat’s out of the bag”
8. Prefixes and suffixes: Students need to learn how to add prefixes and suffixes to base words to create new words, such as “unhappy,” “recover,” “happily,” “unbelievable.”
9. Homonyms: Students need to learn words that are spelled the same but have different meanings, such as “bass” the fish and “bass” the musical instrument
10. Greek and Latin roots: Students need to learn Greek and Latin roots and how they are used to create words, such as “tele” means far and “graph” means to write, so “telegraph” is a way to write from far.

It’s important to note that these are just some of the words that fourth-grade students should learn, and the specific vocabulary will vary depending on the school district and state. Also, as a teacher, you should also be aware of different learning styles and strategies to adapt the teaching to meet the needs of all students.