Middle School Studio Lesson
American History
Brought to Life
For the past twenty years, a major project for my eighth- grade art classes has been a group diorama with plaster
figures. The group has to include two
to four people participating in a sport
or an occupation while showing some
kind of action and interaction.
Not too long ago, a couple of girls
asked to depict the signing of the Dec-
laration of Independence and give it to
their social studies teacher, Mrs. Lee.
I thought, why not have the dioramas
Joetta Teague
depict important events in American
history and make a three-dimensional
timeline? So, in collaboration with
Mrs. Lee, the
three-dimensional timeline
was born.
group. Usually there are five to seven
dioramas created in each rotation. So
in a year’s time, around twenty diora-
mas are created.
As a class, we
brainstorm many
important events
in American his-
tory. The groups
decide on five
that they would like to depict. Mrs.
Lee and I discuss which events would
be better suited for the timeline for
Why not have the dioramas
depict important events in
American history and make a
three-dimensional timeline?
Group Work
Students begin
by choosing their groups. Depend-
ing on how many students are in the
class, on average there are three per
The Gold Rush
