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.”

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115 Texts

Multimedia

Stitching together the social fabric for young mothers in Appalachia

Carrol Layfield manages a quilting group of older women from Ritchie County, West Virginia, who used to work in the area’s garment industry. Using techniques handed down over generations, the women piece together quilts from remnants of fabric from shuttered factories. Kayla Turk is a young mother of two children who returned home to Ritchie County to live with her parents when her husband was laid off. At a communal baby shower, Kayla receives a quilt from the older women, and discovers a network of support.
by
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Grade Level
3-5
Topic
Subject
History
Economics
Social Justice Domain
June 27, 2019
Visual

Chains

These images show how enslavers used chains as a way to take freedom away from enslaved people. This text contains sensitive images that may not be suitable for all students.
by
Various
Grade Level
Topic
Subject
History
Social Justice Domain
January 28, 2020
Visual

Elders

These images were published in a pro-slavery book in 1915. The author published images of formerly enslaved people who continued to live with their enslavers after the Civil War to argue that they were loyal to their enslavers.
by
Various
Grade Level
Topic
Subject
History
Social Justice Domain
February 26, 2020
Multimedia

Fun and Fitness in a Library Parking Lot

Line dance leader Kit Cheung teaches her class of Chinese-American women in an unlikely place: the parking lot of a local library. No other public location offers both the outdoor space and sun cover the group requires for their twist on the traditional Chinese exercise of tai chi. The relationship that forms between the initially reluctant library and Kit’s dance group has created some unexpected opportunities.
by
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Grade Level
3-5
Subject
Social Studies
Social Justice Domain
June 26, 2019