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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343 Texts

Informational

No Promised Land

“When Mormons settled in Missouri in the 1830s, local residents found Mormon beliefs and practices not simply strange, but wrong. … The Mormons, the Missouri governor declared, must be removed—if not by expulsion, then by extermination.”
by
Jim Carnes
Grade Level
Subject
Civics
History
Social Justice Domain
May 22, 2017
Informational

Race Riots

In this essay, the author gives a short history of race riots, showing how they were originally organized by whites in an effort to show dominance over African Americans, particularly in the South.
by
Learning for Justice Staff
Grade Level
Subject
Civics
History
Geography
Social Justice Domain
June 20, 2016
Informational

A Rumbling in the Mines

This chapter details the Chinese involvement in building the transcontinental railroad and the friction it caused between them and white workers, whom Chinese workers displaced from their jobs due to their willingness to work for less and not join labor unions.
by
Learning for Justice Staff
Grade Level
Subject
History
Economics
Geography
Social Justice Domain
August 22, 2016
Informational

Blankets for the Dead

In 1830, the government began systematically removing all Native Americans from the Eastern United States. The removal of Cherokees from Georgia in 1838 has become known as the Trail of Tears. But there were, in fact, many such trails, as the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles and other tribes were forced to abandon their homelands.
by
Learning for Justice Staff
Grade Level
Subject
Civics
History
Geography
Social Justice Domain
August 22, 2016
Informational

Home Was a Horse Stall

On December 7, 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and prompted the United States to enter World War II. While many Americans were concerned about the war abroad, they were also paranoid about the “threat” of Japanese Americans at home. As a result, many Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps on American soil.
by
Learning for Justice Staff
Grade Level
Subject
Civics
History
Geography
Social Justice Domain
August 22, 2016
Informational

Jim Crow Is Watching

In this essay, the author describes the ways in which the Civil War and 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments guaranteed African Americans certain rights, but how those rights were quickly reversed due to intimidation and the Jim Crow system.
by
Learning for Justice Staff
Grade Level
Subject
Civics
History
Economics
Geography
Social Justice Domain
April 27, 2016