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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96 Texts

Informational

Executive Order 10730

In early September 1957, nine African-American students faced a violent mob when they attempted to enter the newly desegregated Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Ark.. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed this executive order on September 23, 1957 to enforce an orderly desegregation.
by
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Grade Level
Subject
Civics
History
Geography
Social Justice Domain
July 4, 2014
Informational

Eleanor Roosevelt Resigns from the DAR

The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is a non-profit organization known for its lineage-based membership. Members of the DAR must be able to trace their genealogy back to an individual connected to American Independence. In this letter, Eleanor Roosevelt responds to the DAR’s refusal in February 1939 to allow the black performer Marian Anderson to sing at their auditorium, Constitution Hall.
by
Eleanor Roosevelt
Grade Level
Subject
Civics
History
Social Justice Domain
July 4, 2014
Informational

The Reich Citzenship Law of September 15, 1935

The Nuremberg Laws embedded many of the racially based ideological principles held by the Nazi party into written law. The German Reichstag passed this set of laws on September 15, 1935, initiating a period of legal discrimination against those the German government deemed racially inferior. The Reich Citizenship Law is one of the Nuremburg Laws.
by
German Reichstag
Grade Level
Subject
Civics
History
Social Justice Domain
July 3, 2014
Informational

Testimony Before the Credentials Committee, Democratic National Convention

In this transcript, Fanny Lou Hamer describes the way in which she was forced to leave the plantation where she worked as as sharecropper for 18 years, was arrested and was beaten--all on account of trying to register to vote.
by
Fannie Lou Hamer
Grade Level
Subject
Civics
History
Economics
Social Justice Domain
July 3, 2014
Informational

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948

The U.N. General Assembly adopted the original version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The intention was to safeguard the international community against atrocities such as occurred during World War II.
by
United Nations
Grade Level
Subject
Civics
History
Economics
Social Justice Domain
July 2, 2014