Student Texts
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Our searchable library of short texts offers a diverse mix of stories and perspectives. This multigenre, multimedia collection aligns with the Common Core's recommendations for text complexity and the Learning for Justice Social Justice Standards.

Choose from informational and literary nonfiction texts, literature, photographs, political cartoons, interviews, infographics and more. You can also filter by text type, grade level, subject and topic.

“The leveled texts have really helped me engage students and introduce them to complex topics in a way they can understand.”

Text Type
Grade Level
Social Justice Domain
Subject
Topic

622 Texts

Informational

Proclamation: To the Great White Father (November, 1969)

The announcement on November 20, 1969 from 89 American Indians – mostly students from colleges and universities – that they were taking over Alcatraz Island, set in motion what would become the longest occupation of a federal facility by Native Americans to date. This report aired a year later on NBC News, in December 1970, six months before the occupation ended.
by
American Indian Movement (AIM)
Grade Level
Subject
Civics
History
Economics
Geography
Social Justice Domain
July 2, 2014
Informational

Paragraph 175

The German Reichstag passed the following version of Paragraph 175, which imposed harsher legal restrictions and penalties on sexual activity between men, in 1935. With this law came a dramatic increase in the number of individuals facing prosecution for homosexual activity.
by
German Reichstag
Grade Level
Subject
Civics
History
Geography
Social Justice Domain
July 2, 2014
Literature

Papalotzin and the Monarchs: A Bilingual Tale of Breaking Down Walls

When a wall is built between the Great North and the Great South, nothing can pass by it, not the clouds or the wind or even the monarch butterflies. When both sides begin to suffer, Papalotzin, Royal Butterfly, breaks down the Great Wall.
by
Rigoberto González
Grade Level
Subject
Civics
History
Economics
Geography
Social Justice Domain
July 2, 2014
Informational

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas

Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the opinion for Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, a groundbreaking case that overturned the "separate but equal" standard set forth in Plessy v. Ferguson. The Supreme Court decided this case unanimously on May 17, 1954.
by
Earl Warren
Grade Level
Subject
Civics
History
Social Justice Domain
July 2, 2014
Informational

Always Running

In this excerpt from his memoir, Rodriguez provides a stirring recollection from his adolescence: the first time he experienced racism as a result of being an immigrant in America. As he says, the experience "stays with [him] like a foul odor."
by
Luis J. Rodriguez
Grade Level
Social Justice Domain
July 2, 2014