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

621 Texts

Multimedia

Birdsong guides a tribe home

“The desert-dwelling Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians were uprooted from their ancestral lands. For decades, they were cheated of the property rights deeded to them by the U.S. government, and then subject to restrictive deed provisions. Not until the 1980s were they able to develop their own land in Palm Springs, and only recently have they begun to restore the springs revered by their ancestors. Tribal council member Anthony J. Andreas III battles the severe mental health problems that afflict the traumatized tribe by reviving ancestral practices. Traditional Bird Songs and pottery help today’s youth draw strength from the tribe’s sources of spiritual resilience.”
by
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Grade Level
6-8
Subject
History
Social Justice Domain
June 27, 2019
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

I Am the Blood of the Conqueror; I Am the Blood of the Conquered

In this blog post, the author details the internal struggle she feels when coming to terms with the bloody heritage she shares with conquistadors like Christopher Columbus and the pride she takes in remembering, embracing and living out her cultural history.
by
Christina Torres
Grade Level
6-8
Subject
History
Geography
Social Justice Domain
August 22, 2016
Visual

Branding Slaves

This is an image of enslavers burning brands into the skin of people they enslaved, this engraving illustrates the way that enslaved people were treated as property.
by
William O. Blake
Grade Level
Topic
Subject
History
Geography
Social Justice Domain
December 13, 2017
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Illustration of person holding and looking at laptop.

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