Student Texts

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 Teaching Tolerance 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

46 Texts

Multimedia

Familiar food turns a refuge into a home

“Padam and Purna were forced from their homeland in Bhutan and trapped in camps in Nepal for decades before being resettled in an alien land: Clarkston, Georgia. The refugees have found some stability, but still feel frustrated and uprooted, which leads to domestic violence and suicide in the refugee community. Padam and Purna realized that familiar food is the first step to feeling at home. They have opened a food store and other refugee-run businesses, which offer safe spaces and sources of mutual support for all the Asian refugees in Clarkston, who are united by their experience of trauma.”
by
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Grade Level
Subject
History
Economics
Geography
Social Justice Domain
Informational

I Didn't Know There Were Cities in Africa: Challenging Children's-and Adult's-Misperceptions about the African Continent

In her article, Randolph delineates the profound impact of perpetuating stereotypical representations of Africa and its people by arranging them into three levels and then providing recommendations for how to combat them when creating learning experiences for students in the United States.
by
LFJ Staff
Grade Level
Subject
History
Geography
Social Justice Domain
Informational

The Problem That Has No Name

In this excerpt, Betty Friedan explores the feelings of entrapment experienced by American suburban housewives in the 1950s and 1960s. She writes that these feelings magnified the desire to have something more, to have something for themselves that did not orbit around their husbands, children or homes.
by
Betty Friedan
Grade Level
Subject
History
Economics
Social Justice Domain
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Teaching Tolerance collage of images

Welcome to Learning for Justice—Formerly Teaching Tolerance!

Our work has evolved in the last 30 years, from reducing prejudice to tackling systemic injustice. So we’ve chosen a new name that better reflects that evolution: Learning for Justice.

Learn More