British Columbia · Grade 12
Literary Studies 12
- LTST 12
British Columbia’s Grade 12 English course, from Reading & Comprehension to Voice, Appropriation & the Evolution of Language.
- Units
- 5
- Lessons
- 22
- Skills
- 32
- Provincial exam
- None
- Official curriculum
- Province of British Columbia
Unit by unit
Every skill in the course, numbered by unit.
Unit 1 · 8 skills
Reading & Comprehension
Features and Structures of First Peoples Texts
Features and structures of First Peoples texts
I can analyze the features and structures of First Peoples texts as deliberate literary architecture.
Skill 1.1
Narrative Structures and Ownership of First Peoples Texts
Narrative structures in First Peoples texts (circular, iterative, cyclical)
I can analyze the narrative structures found in First Peoples texts, including cyclical and iterative storytelling.
Skill 1.2
Protocols for the ownership of First Peoples oral texts
I can explain and respect the protocols related to the ownership of First Peoples oral texts.
Skill 1.3
Oral Tradition and the Influence of Land and Place
The role of story, narrative, and oral tradition in First Peoples texts
I can understand and appreciate the role of story, narrative, and oral tradition in expressing First Peoples perspectives, values, beliefs, and points of view.
Skill 1.4
The influence of land and place in First Peoples and Canadian texts
I can understand the influence of land and place in First Peoples and other Canadian texts.
Skill 1.5
Reading and Metacognitive Strategies
Reading strategies for increasingly complex texts
I can select and apply reading strategies suited to increasingly complex, self-selected literary texts.
Skill 1.6
Metacognitive strategies — thinking about your own thinking
I can monitor and repair my own comprehension while reading, writing, and discussing complex texts.
Skill 1.7
Comprehension Strategies That Transform Thinking
Selecting and applying strategies to comprehend texts and transform thinking
I can select and apply strategies to comprehend written, oral, visual, and multimodal texts, to guide inquiry, and to transform my thinking.
Skill 1.8
The official wording · 8 outcomes
- 1.1
- features and structures of First Peoples texts
- 1.2
- narrative structures found in First Peoples texts
- 1.3
- protocols related to the ownership of First Peoples oral texts
- 1.4
- Understand and appreciate the role of story, narrative, and oral tradition in expressing First Peoples perspectives, values, beliefs, and points of view
- 1.5
- Understand the influence of land/place in First Peoples and other Canadian texts
- 1.6
- reading strategies
- 1.7
- metacognitive strategies
- 1.8
- Select and apply appropriate strategies in a variety of contexts to comprehend written, oral, visual, and multimodal texts, to guide inquiry, and to transform thinking
Key ideas
Recurring motifs, connection to land and place, and the presence of orality (even in a written text) are structural choices, not stylistic decoration.
Cyclical time — where the story returns to its starting point changed, rather than marching from conflict to resolution — reflects relationships to season, land, and generation.
Oral tradition is a living, authoritative way of knowing and transmitting perspectives, values, beliefs, and points of view — not folklore freely retold by anyone.
Close reading means reading a passage multiple times for different layers: literal meaning, then pattern, then implication.
Strategy choice depends on purpose and context — predicting, questioning, paraphrasing, forming images, inferring, determining importance, identifying themes, and drawing conclusions serve different texts differently.
Watch out for
- Assuming a text that doesn't follow a clear beginning-middle-end arc is 'poorly structured' rather than differently structured on purpose.
- Expecting a climax-and-resolution shape and mis-reading a cyclical ending as 'no ending' or an unresolved plot.
- Treating oral tradition as a less rigorous or less 'real' source of knowledge than a written text.
Every skill’s key ideas, worked examples and checks are in MapleMind.Practise this unit
Unit 2 · 3 skills
Critical Reading
Evaluating Relevance, Accuracy, and Reliability
Evaluating the relevance, accuracy, and reliability of a source
I can evaluate the relevance, accuracy, and reliability of texts.
Skill 2.1
Analyzing Ideas Within, Between, and Beyond Texts
Analyzing ideas within, between, and beyond texts
I can think critically, creatively, and reflectively to analyze ideas within, between, and beyond texts.
Skill 2.2
Analyzing Context, Values, and Perspectives
Analyzing personal, social, and cultural context, values, and perspective in a text
I can recognize and analyze personal, social, and cultural context, values, and perspective in a text.
Skill 2.3
The official wording · 3 outcomes
- 2.1
- Evaluate the relevance, accuracy, and reliability of texts
- 2.2
- Think critically, creatively, and reflectively to analyze ideas within, between, and beyond texts
- 2.3
- Recognize and analyze personal, social, cultural contexts, values, and perspectives in texts, including culture, gender, sexual orientation, and socio-economic status
Key ideas
Relevance means weighing whether material has credibility, currency, and significance for your purpose, and whether it resonates with lived experience.
Analyzing WITHIN a text means tracing how a single idea develops, complicates, or contradicts itself across that one text.
Texts carry personal, social, and cultural contexts, values, and perspectives, including culture, gender, sexual orientation, and socio-economic status.
Reliability means considering point of view, bias, and propaganda, and asking whose voices have been left out, omitted, or misrepresented.
Analyzing BETWEEN texts means putting two or more texts in conversation — where they agree, clash, or illuminate each other on a shared idea.
Watch out for
- Equating 'well-written' or 'confident-sounding' with 'reliable,' rather than checking evidence, sourcing, and omissions.
- Stopping at noticing a connection between two texts ('they're both about loss') without analyzing what the comparison actually reveals.
- Naming a context ('this text is about gender') without analyzing how that context actually shapes meaning or a character's choices.
Every skill’s key ideas, worked examples and checks are in MapleMind.Practise this unit
Unit 3 · 7 skills
Literary Analysis (Analyze Level)
Form, Function, and Genre
Form, function, and genre of literary texts
I can analyze how a text's form, function, and genre choices serve — or deliberately subvert — reader expectations.
Skill 3.1
Elements of Style and Literary Devices
Elements of style — diction, vocabulary, sentence structure, tone
I can analyze elements of style as evidence for an interpretive claim about a text's meaning and effect.
Skill 3.2
Literary elements and devices, including figurative language
I can identify and analyze literary elements and devices, including figurative language, arguing their specific effect with textual evidence.
Skill 3.3
How Text Structure Reflects Purpose, Audience, and Message
How text forms and structures reflect purpose, audience, and message
I can understand and appreciate how different forms, formats, structures, and features of texts reflect a variety of purposes, audiences, and messages.
Skill 3.4
Analyzing How Devices Shape Meaning and Impact
Analyzing how literary elements and devices shape meaning and impact
I can analyze how text structures, literary elements, techniques, and devices enhance and shape meaning and impact.
Skill 3.5
An Increasing Range of Text Structures
Recognizing an increasing range of text structures and their contribution to meaning
I can recognize an increasing range of text structures and understand how they contribute to meaning.
Skill 3.6
Discerning Nuance in Word Meaning
Discerning nuances in word meanings across contexts
I can discern nuances in the meanings of words, considering social, political, historical, and literary contexts.
Skill 3.7
The official wording · 7 outcomes
- 3.1
- form, function, and genre of texts
- 3.2
- elements of style
- 3.3
- literary elements and devices
- 3.4
- Understand and appreciate how different forms, formats, structures, and features of texts reflect a variety of purposes, audiences, and messages
- 3.5
- Analyze how text structures, literary elements, techniques, and devices enhance and shape meaning and impact
- 3.6
- Recognize an increasing range of text structures and understand how they contribute to meaning
- 3.7
- Discern nuances in the meanings of words, considering social, political, historical, and literary contexts
Key ideas
Every genre carries built-in reader expectations (a poem invites attention to line and sound; a graphic novel invites attention to panel and gutter).
Diction, vocabulary, sentence structure, and tone are choices a writer sustains — or deliberately shifts — across a text, and each shift is meaningful.
Forms, formats, structures, and features of texts — including typography, guide words, titles, diagrams, captions, and sidebars — are chosen decisions, not neutral defaults.
This is the escalated ANALYZE-level demand above Grade 10/11: build a sustained argument for HOW a specific device or structure produces a specific effect, not just identify that it's present.
Senior-level texts use less common, more demanding organizational choices — nested narratives, non-linear timelines, hybrid genres — beyond the familiar structures met earlier in this stream.
Watch out for
- Treating genre as a fixed shelf category rather than a set of reader expectations a writer can meet or manipulate.
- Describing style only in vague terms ('the writing is descriptive') instead of naming the specific device and its effect.
- Describing a text's structure without connecting it to purpose, audience, or message — treating structure as a neutral fact rather than a meaningful choice.
Every skill’s key ideas, worked examples and checks are in MapleMind.Practise this unit
Unit 4 · 11 skills
Composing & Responding
Multimodal Writing Strategies and the Writing Process
Multimodal writing strategies for combining media
I can plan and create multimodal texts where each mode deliberately contributes to meaning.
Skill 4.1
Writing processes — from gathering ideas to editing
I can move through the writing process with independence, treating each stage as distinct, purposeful work.
Skill 4.2
Oral Language Strategies for Discussing Literature
Oral language strategies for discussing literature
I can apply oral language strategies suited to both formal presentations and live seminar discussion.
Skill 4.3
Usage and Conventions
Usage — avoiding double negatives, mixed metaphors, malapropisms, word misuse
I can recognize and correct common usage errors — double negatives, mixed metaphors, malapropisms, and word misuse.
Skill 4.4
Conventions — standard punctuation, capitalization, quoting, Canadian spelling
I can apply the conventions of Canadian spelling, grammar, sentence construction, and punctuation proficiently and appropriately to context.
Skill 4.5
Citation and Intellectual Property
Citation techniques for acknowledging sources
I can use citation techniques to cite sources in appropriate ways, understanding and avoiding plagiarism.
Skill 4.6
Acknowledgements and citations — avoiding plagiarism, respecting IP rights
I can use acknowledgements and citations to recognize intellectual property rights.
Skill 4.7
Building and Defending an Evidence-Based Argument
Building and defending an evidence-based opinion to achieve a purpose
I can express and support an opinion about a text with evidence, to achieve a purpose for a specific audience.
Skill 4.8
Composing and Refining Original Texts
Composing meaningful texts for real purposes and audiences
I can use writing and design processes to plan, develop, and create engaging and meaningful texts for a variety of purposes and audiences.
Skill 4.9
Revising and refining writing for clarity, effectiveness, and impact
I can reflect on, assess, and refine texts to improve clarity, effectiveness, and impact.
Skill 4.10
Transforming ideas into original texts across genres and forms
I can transform ideas and information to create original texts, using various genres, forms, structures, and styles.
Skill 4.11
The official wording · 11 outcomes
- 4.1
- multimodal writing strategies
- 4.2
- writing processes
- 4.3
- oral language strategies
- 4.4
- usage and conventions
- 4.5
- usage and conventions
- 4.6
- citation techniques
- 4.7
- Use acknowledgements and citations to recognize intellectual property rights
- 4.8
- Express and support an opinion with evidence to achieve purpose
- 4.9
- Use writing and design processes to plan, develop, and create engaging and meaningful texts for a variety of purposes and audiences
- 4.10
- Reflect on, assess, and refine texts to improve clarity, effectiveness, and impact
- 4.11
- Transform ideas and information to create original texts, using various genres, forms, structures, and styles
Key ideas
A multimodal text's meaning depends on the interaction between modes (text + image, text + layout, text + sound), not on the words in isolation.
A defensible spoken argument is organized before you speak — claim, textual evidence, explanation — even in an informal seminar.
A double negative ('I don't have no time') muddies meaning even when the intent is clear from context.
In-text citation and a works-cited or bibliography list work together — one points to the source in the moment, the other gives the full record.
A thesis is a claim you can argue against, not a fact or a plot summary — 'the novel is about grief' is a topic; 'the novel refuses to let its narrator's grief resolve, and that refusal is the point' is a claim you can defend.
Watch out for
- Treating an image or design element as decoration added after the writing is 'done' rather than as part of the argument.
- Treating a seminar as a debate to 'win' rather than a shared act of building understanding.
- Assuming a reader will 'figure out what I meant' despite a double negative or malapropism, so precision doesn't matter.
Every skill’s key ideas, worked examples and checks are in MapleMind.Practise this unit
Unit 5 · 3 skills
Voice, Appropriation & the Evolution of Language
Appropriation and Reclamation of Voice
Appropriation of voice — using the voice of another person or group
I can understand appropriation of voice in literature and evaluate when it crosses into misrepresentation.
Skill 5.1
Reclamation of voice — marginalized peoples asserting their voices
I can understand reclamation of voice as a distinct, powerful literary act.
Skill 5.2
The Evolution of Language
The evolution of language — how words and structures shift over time
I can understand that language is dynamic and changes over time, and trace this evolution inside literary texts.
Skill 5.3
The official wording · 3 outcomes
- 5.1
- Appropriation and reclamation of voice
- 5.2
- Appropriation and reclamation of voice
- 5.3
- The evolution of language
Key ideas
Appropriation refers to the act of taking something from another individual or group and using it for one's own purpose; cultural appropriation refers to taking elements of another culture and using them for one's own purpose.
Language is dynamic and changes over time — it is never a fixed, finished system.
Appropriation of voice in literature can refer to a writer using the voice of another person or group — drawing on a cultural motif, theme, image, knowledge, story, song, or drama that is not their own.
A variety of factors lead to shifts in the ways words and language structures are used, including social and technological change and the impact of other languages.
Appropriation becomes a serious ethical problem specifically when it misrepresents the real, lived experience of the people whose voice, culture, or story is being used.
Watch out for
- Assuming any writer using any voice or perspective other than their own is automatically appropriation — collapsing all cross-cultural writing into the same ethical category.
- Assuming a word has always meant what it means today, missing evidence in older texts of a different or shifted usage.
- Believing appropriation is only about who is 'allowed' to write about a topic, rather than about whether the portrayal is respectful, accurate, and non-exploitative.
Every skill’s key ideas, worked examples and checks are in MapleMind.Practise this unit
Plan the term
Pick your term and the days you study. Each unit gets its share of the weeks and comes back a week later for a review. The last two weeks go over the whole course.
Which course?
British Columbia has 3 English courses for Grade 12. Here they are side by side.
- Creative Writing 12CTWR 125 units · 29 skillsNo provincial examWhat it coversThe Creative Writer's Craft · Genres & Forms of Creative Writing · Style, Voice & Literary Devices · Writing Process & Portfolio · Reading, Responding & Sharing
- English Studies 12ENST 124 units · 13 skillsNo provincial examWhat it coversText Forms, Genres & Story · First Peoples Texts & Reconciliation · Strategies & Processes · Language, Style & Conventions
- Literary Studies 12This courseLTST 125 units · 32 skillsNo provincial examWhat it coversReading & Comprehension · Critical Reading · Literary Analysis (Analyze Level) · Composing & Responding · Voice, Appropriation & the Evolution of Language
What a university, college or program asks for is theirs to say: check its admission page, and your school’s course guide.
The official curriculum
This page follows British Columbia’s own curriculum for Literary Studies 12.
Textbooks
In British Columbia, each school district chooses its own textbooks: the ministry no longer recommends them. The ministry’s page
Study it in MapleMind
MapleMind teaches Literary Studies 12 one skill at a time. Each skill gets a short lesson, practice as you go and a check worth up to three stars. It remembers where you stopped.
Course Companion
Your year in one workbook
A fun way to keep Literary Studies 12 organized, get to know your child better and see early when they need a hand. Fill it in on a screen, or print it.
- Pages
- 36
- Fillable fields
- 1,514
- Price
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Questions about Literary Studies 12
What is Literary Studies 12?
British Columbia’s Grade 12 English course: 5 units and 32 skills, from Reading & Comprehension to Voice, Appropriation & the Evolution of Language.
What units are in Literary Studies 12?
1. Reading & Comprehension, 2. Critical Reading, 3. Literary Analysis (Analyze Level), 4. Composing & Responding and 5. Voice, Appropriation & the Evolution of Language.
Is there a provincial exam for Literary Studies 12?
No. British Columbia gives no provincial exam for Literary Studies 12.
What textbook does Literary Studies 12 use?
Each school district in British Columbia chooses its own textbooks, so ask your teacher which one your class uses.
Can MapleMind help with Literary Studies 12?
Yes. MapleMind teaches every skill of Literary Studies 12, step by step, with practice and checks, and its tutor answers questions about any of them. It’s free with daily limits, on iPhone, Android and the web.
Get ready for Literary Studies 12
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