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In a third grade classroom at Capital 

Elementary School in Washington, D.C., the 

kids and their teacher Mrs. Hancock were 

having a discussion about rules. It was a small 

class of roughly 13 students and their pet 

Turtle, whom they had named Bill O Rights. 

Mrs. Hancock wanted all the students to have a 

say in how their classroom was run and to be 

able to enjoy their time at school because some 

of the kids did not agree with some of the 

original rules.The class had tried to change the 

rules but not everyone had participated. As 

they were sitting in class one day studying their 

history lesson one of the students had a 

brilliant idea. They could all propose items that 

they wished to be classroom rules. That way 

each of the student is given a voice in 

everything that goes on every day in class.  

Mrs. Hancock was thrilled about the idea and it 

showed that her history lessons were really 

sticking with the kids.

The more Mrs. Hancock thought about it, she 

realized that this would really help to teach the 

kids while allowing them to have fun and 

understand important things at the same time. 

Some of the students had previously met and 

had come up with some ideas of their own, but 

now the whole class could participate. So she 

told the students that when they returned to 

school the following week they were going to 

spend their time having they own personal 

“Mrs. Hancock’s Third Grade Class 

Convention.” The students got really excited 

and couldn't wait to return for their week of 

fun. 

Monday morning came around and the excited 

little third graders bounced happily into their 

classroom. They all took their seats at their 

desks to hear the rules for their convention. 

Mrs. Hancock told them that in order for the 

rules that they proposed to get passed, three 

quarters of the class needed to vote for it. And 

not all of them would get the right to be voted 

on. When the rules got passed they would 

officially need to be followed on a daily basis in 

the classroom. Mrs. Hancock also told the class 

that they would get credit for being the original 

writes of these new rules and everyone who 

agreed could sign the new laws. 

Mrs. Hancock than went on to say that as the 

convention was coming to a close, they were 

going to develop a classroom government and 

all of the old rules would have to be replaced. 

After a classroom discussion the students came 

to a compromise on how the classroom 

government would be set up.The government 

was going to separate into three different 

groups. One group was going to oversee 

everything done in the classroom, the head of 

the system. The second group was going to be 

in charge of deciding if everyone was correctly 

following the rules. And finally the third group 

was in charge of proposing the different rules to 

be added and then voting on whether or not the 

whole class was going to have a say. 

After Mrs. Hancock explained how everything 

was going to work over the course of the next 

few days, each student had time to make a list 

of rules that they thought should be used in the 

classroom. Many of the rules the students 

thought of were very similar, things such as no 

fighting, working together, making everything 

fair for everyone else, and a list of freedoms 

granted to each one of them. Then before they 

knew it they began to set up and decorate their 

classroom for the first annual, “Mrs. Hancock’s 

Third Grade Class Convention.”

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