Student Texts
Bookmarked 257 times

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 Place Where Sunflowers Grow

Mari and her family have been sent to an internment camp in Utah. She does not understand what they have done to deserve their internment and longs for her backyard in California where she used to grow sunflowers.
by
Amy Lee-Tai and Felicia Hoshino (illustrator)
Grade Level
3-5
Subject
History
Social Justice Domain
April 7, 2016
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
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
Literature

A Slave Auction

Solomon Northup was kidnapped and sold into slavery for 12 years before he was freed. This excerpt from his memoir of those years, Twelve Years A Slave, details a New Orleans slave auction.
by
Solomon Northup
Grade Level
6-8
Subject
History
Economics
Social Justice Domain
April 27, 2016
Multimedia

A Student Remembers Her School's 'Lunch Man,' Philando Castile

On July 6, 2016, Philando Castile was pulled over by police near Saint Paul, Minn., after being misidentified as a robbery suspect. He was then shot and killed by an officer during the traffic stop. In this StoryCorps edition, Chad Eisen-Ramgren has a conversation with his 10-year-old daughter, who was a student at the school where Mr. Phil managed the cafeteria.
by
StoryCorps
Grade Level
3-5
Topic
Subject
History
Social Justice Domain
September 28, 2018
Informational

A Very Special Delivery

'Henry Brown left Richmond, Va. a slave and arrived in Philadelphia—in a freight box—a free man. Abolitionists who cheered Brown's 27-hour journey to freedom chose not to publicize it, fearing that others following in his path would be in danger.
by
Alison Leigh Cowan
Grade Level
Subject
History
Social Justice Domain
July 5, 2014