Lisa Waller Rogers
Lisa Waller Rogers has published five popular history books, and workbooks, all available on Amazon.
A Texas Sampler: Historical Recollections (primary source material/all levels, Texas Tech University Press, 1998) was a 1999 finalist for the Texas Institute of Letters Best Book for Children/Young People Award. It is endorsed by former First Lady Laura Bush. Teacher and Student Workbooks are also available. Amazon
Angel of the Alamo: A True Story of Texas (middle grade biography, W.S. Benson & Co., 2000) was a 2005 nominee for the Texas State Reading Association Golden Spur Award. Amazon
Get Along, Little Dogies: The Chisholm Trail Diary of Hallie Lou Wells, South Texas, 1878 (middle grade historical fiction, TTUP, 2001) was a finalist for the 2003-2004 Lamplighter Award. Amazon
The Great Storm: The Hurricane Diary of J.T. King, Galveston, 1900 (middle grade historical fiction, TTUP, 2002) won the 2002 Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Juvenile Book and was a 2004-2005 Lamplighter Award Finalist. In acknowledgment, the Texas House of Representatives adopted House Resolution No. 995 stating that “Ms. Rogers has distinguished herself as one of the premier storytellers of our time.” Amazon
With the publication of Remember the Alamo: The Runaway Scrape Diary of Belle Wood, Austin’s Colony, 1835-1836 (middle grade historical fiction, TTUP, 2003), “Lisa Waller Rogers has created a new children’s classic of Texas literature,” wrote Deborah Hardin in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly (October 2004), the oldest continuously published scholarly journal in Texas. Amazon
As any social studies or reading teacher will tell you, instilling in middle readers the ardent realization that they have stories of their own to record–that their day-to-day lives are history, too–is just as important as getting them to read. My Lone Star Journal is a companion writing journal that encourages youngsters to chronicle their daily lives just as Hallie Lou Wells and the other protagonists of Lisa Waller Rogers’ Lone Star Journals do. Each journal has a title page for the young scribes to personalize and 94 ruled pages. Amazon
Lisa's History Room 
[…] Lisa Waller Rogers is the author of four history books, including Angel of the Alamo: A True Story of Texas. […]
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Last night my son, who is a freshman in high school, bravely approached me with some bad news. He had submitted a character analysis to his English teacher last week, and when the graded papers were distributed to the students yesterday, my son was taken to the hallway and accused of plagiarism. He was told that he downloaded his paper from the internet, and that he would not be given credit for the work. He adamantly denied the accusation, as it is completely untrue and out of character, and told the teacher that he would need to speak with his parents. I was shocked by the news, and readied myself for the inevitable confrontation.
Today, my husband, my son and I promptly entered the high school at 8 a.m. and waited for our meeting with the teacher and the principal. Once seated around the tiny table in the uncomfortably warm conference room, I proceeded to ask the teacher how he substantiated his claim for plagiarism against my son; what website had he seen the work previously published? With obvious embarrassment, he explained that he and another teacher had searched online for over half an hour, and found no supporting evidence for his claims. I explained to him that I knew that would be his answer, because my son did not plagiarize; I knew this because I had assisted him in the composition of his paper. The teacher continued to explain that the paper was just too good for a freshman paper; I replied that I felt it unnecessary to dumb his paper down and that he should be submitting college level work if he is capable of it. After speaking with us, he knew that my son had done the work, and apologized to him. Not only did he accept the paper, but asked if he could use it as a teaching tool for his class.
You see, my son is following in my own footsteps, he had found the one subject in school that didn’t bore him….Shakespeare. His character analysis was on Mercutio from Romeo and Juliet. I took great pride and joy in explaining to his English teacher that I had been blessed to have the most wonderful teacher in the world in 5th grade, I had Ms. Waller.
I had a teacher who had the bravery to not teach me the standard curriculum for language arts, and instead challenged her class to learn Shakespeare…Romeo and Juliet to be exact. We not only read the play, we understood it, we became passionate about it, and we even performed it. I played Lord Capulet, and I will never forget it. My fondest memories of my education are studying Shakespeare in Ms. Waller’s 5th grade class with Strawberry Fields Forever playing in the background. To this day, I love the Beatles, and Shakespeare, and because of her creativity, belief, and support, I am a writer. I was the news editor for both my high school and college newspapers, and though I have a boring day job, I am a freelance writer on the side….which is my true passion.
Ms. Waller changed my life for the better, and instilled in me a love of art, culture and creativity that I would not otherwise have. I think of her when I write, I think of her when I am at the opera, and I thought of her today as I sang her praises, and realized once again how lucky I am to have had her influence in my life. I am sad to say, I am not a huge history buff, but my husband is almost maniacal about it, and is doing his best to convert me into an amateur historian. Wish him luck. I love you Ms. Waller.
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Wow! Ms. Waller has been a powerful influence on my intellectual development as well, but Rachel said it so much better than I ever could.
Thanks!
Shirley Kavanaugh
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Shirley, you are a powerhouse.
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Lisa,
My two boys love your book, The Great Storm. It is at the top of their list of favorite books. My younger son is doing a book report on the Great Storm and one of the requirements is to have the address to send a letter to the author. Where should he send the letter? Thanks so much!
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Renae, thank you for this compliment. Tell your younger son to write me at:
Lisa Waller Rogers
3904 Berryhill Way
Austin, TX 78731
I will reply.
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Lisa,
Thanks for mentioning your blog to me at water aerobics today. It is awesome.
Deanna
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Deanna, I’m glad you like Lisa’s History Room.
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What a wonderful service you have performed in the education of our youth.
David
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David! Thanks for visiting Lisa’s History Room. I hope you found something of interest here. All my best, Lisa
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The Angle of the Alamo has a great grand Son, 1st Lt Severino B Calderon please google he was raised at 203 King William San Antonio, Texas he passed in an air show. If you would like to know more please get in touch. Thanks
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Hi, I am Lisa Keeler. I teach 4th grade Reading/Language Arts and integrate Social Studies with it in Galveston. I am a native Texan and cannot stand students missing out on Social Studies because of the STAAR test prep. This will be my 3rd year teaching 4th grade this year.
This coming school year, we are changing our RLA/SS curriculum to a novel studies basis. I have chosen your 3 Lone Star Journals books as well as “A Paradise Called Texas”. We are beginning the year with “The Great Storm” since its anniversary is in September.
On the TTU Press web-site, it has a link on the “Get Along Little Dogies” for a Teacher Supplement. But, when I click on it, the web-site does not come up. Do you have a teaching supplement for these books? I am currently working on it myself.
Our project for this book is going to be a scavenger hunt to find and take their picture in front of the landmarks listed in the book, whether they are still there or not. I am also including some other landmarks that are not in the book but were here in 1900. The students will have to take their picture in front of the location and create a display of their pictures.
I love these books and am so excited to include them in my curriculum this year.
Thank you for any information you have.
Lisa Keeler
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Lisa, thank you so much for the honor of using my books in your classroom study. There is no curriculum supplement for the diaries. The places listed in all 3 books are actual places and the stories are historically authentic. Please stay in touch. I am a former teacher, 4th, 5th, 6th grades. I admire you for your drive. Many thanks and much love, Lisa
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I just wanted to give you an update on the progress of the 1900 Storm book. In a few words all I can say is that the students are IN LOVE. Every week when I pull out the books, they cheer. Then when I finish reading the section for the week they boo and beg for more! We have been reading about 20ish pages a week. I successfully divided the book so that it leaves a bit of a cliffhanger for them each time. We have about 3 more weeks to go until we finish the book.
After testing them taking turns reading the book out loud, I decided that it worked better for me to read it to them. Many of the students still struggle with reading with feeling, so it lost some of the “umph” with them reading it.
I have to say thank you for writing with such description and use of your words. I try to limit each week to 12 vocabulary words, but every time I read it, I find more words that would be beneficial for the students to know. Each week, the students complete a Frayer model on each word. I modified the traditional Frayer model a bit to accommodate a younger student. I give them the definitions, but they have to match them to the correct words. I tell them on what page each word is located. They look it up and write the sentence from the book. They then use context clues to figure out the correct definition. They still draw the picture depicting the word, but instead of writing synonyms for the vocabulary word, I have them use the word in their own sentence in the other box.
They are also in the middle of their project for the book – a scavenger hunt of places that survived the storm and are still here today. They have to take their picture in front of each location then present either a physical display or an electronic one (such as a Power Point display). I gave them all of the locations mentioned in the book and many others. They don’t have to visit all of them. They are excited. Their families are excited. I am excited. They will present their products on Oct 22.
Our next book is “A Paradise Called Texas” then we will move into your other 2 books in the spring. I can only hope that they will enjoy the other books just as much. They have such a connection to this book being that it is about their hometown. This book has definitely set a foundation for them to love their home and state even more.
Thank you again for writing such incredible books.
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Lisa, you are a one-of-a-kind teacher. These kids are going to love history because you make it meaningful. I am so glad The Great Storm is enjoyable. When I wrote it, particularly the scene when J.T. goes out into the storm, I felt as if the storm was taking place. I felt transported. I feel my truest writing took place in the storm part of the book. I have lived thru 3 hurricanes (see the back of the book) and I could imagine the storm vividly and the fear of “what next?”
Much love and many thanks to you.
Also, A Paradise Called Texas is written by Janice Shefelman, another Austinite. She might be on facebook and you could reach her. L
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