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

Literature

A Room of One's Own

In this excerpt, Virginia Woolf declares that any talented woman born in the 16th, 17th, 18th or even 19th centuries would have been so hindered from sharing her gifts due to her sex--and if she somehow overcame this obstacle, her name would not have been tied to her work.
by
Virginia Woolf
Grade Level
Subject
History
Social Justice Domain
July 7, 2014
Literature

The Yellow Wallpaper

This short story—an important piece in early American feminist literature—sheds light on 19th century attitudes toward women with physical and mental illness. In this excerpt, the speaker details her bedroom, a place where her husband and doctors come to encourage her to health. Her ailment is vague; the emphasis is on what others—all men—think and say.
by
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Grade Level
Subject
History
Social Justice Domain
July 7, 2014
Literature

Life in the Iron Mills

This short story—acclaimed as one of the earliest examples of American realism—paints a bleak picture of industrial workers' lives in the mid-1800s.
by
Rebecca Harding Davis
Grade Level
Topic
Subject
History
Social Justice Domain
July 7, 2014
Informational

Danger on my Doorstep

Linda Schubert recounts the fear that consumed her Jewish family living in Nazi-Germany in the late 1930s. Each family member endured individual stress and anxiety, but each also contributed to the family's greater good of the family.
by
Linda Schubert
Grade Level
6-8
Subject
History
Geography
Social Justice Domain
July 7, 2014
Informational

President Obama's Address on the 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday

Obama's 2015 speech on the Edmund Pettus Bridge honors the anniversary of "Bloody Sunday," when hundreds of voting-rights activists were brutally attacked by state troopers as they began a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. President Obama reminds us of the spirit and struggle associated with the marchers in Selma, or any group of people meeting injustice.
by
Barack Obama
Grade Level
Subject
Civics
History
Economics
Geography
Social Justice Domain
March 11, 2015
Multimedia

Hawaiians Live in Aloha

This animation sequence explains traditional Hawaiian gender roles and their conception of māhū, or the middle. Kumu Hina, a teacher at Hālau Lōkahi— a public charter school in Hawaii—also discusses the history of colonization and its impact on Hawaiian culture.
by
Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson
Grade Level
Subject
History
Geography
Social Justice Domain
March 20, 2015
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A map of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi with overlaid images of key state symbols and of people in community

Learning for Justice in the South

When it comes to investing in racial justice in education, we believe that the South is the best place to start. If you’re an educator, parent or caregiver, or community member living and working in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana or Mississippi, we’ll mail you a free introductory package of our resources when you join our community and subscribe to our magazine.

Learn More