Nova Scotia · Grade 10
English 10
- ENG10
Nova Scotia’s Grade 10 English course, from Speaking and Listening to Writing and Other Ways of Representing.
- Units
- 3
- Lessons
- 10
- Skills
- 37
- Provincial exam
- 20% of the final mark
- Official curriculum
- Nova Scotia Department of Education
Unit by unit
Every skill in the course, with its official code.
Unit 1 · 6 skills
Speaking and Listening
Exploring and Reflecting Through Talk
Constructing ideas through questions and responses
I can build my understanding of an issue by asking relevant questions and answering others thoughtfully.
Official code: 1.2
Presenting a personal viewpoint to a group
I can present my viewpoint to a group, read their responses, and factor others' ideas into my position.
Official code: 1.3
Communicating Information and Ideas
Adapting to formal and informal speaking situations
I can tell formal from informal speaking situations and adjust how I speak.
Official code: 2.1
Adapting a message to the speaker-listener connection
I can adapt my message, language, and delivery based on my connection to the listener and the context.
Official code: 2.2
Physical qualities and language choices in oral communication
I can use appropriate physical qualities and language choices for my situation, audience, and purpose.
Official code: 2.4
Awareness of varieties of language and communication styles
I can recognize different varieties of language and the social contexts that shape speech events.
Official code: 3.3
The official wording · 6 outcomes
- 1.2
- construct ideas about issues by asking relevant questions and responding thoughtfully to questions posed
- 1.3
- present a personal viewpoint to a group of listeners, interpret their responses, and take others’ ideas into account when explaining their positions
- 2.1
- participate in a range of speaking situations, demonstrating an understanding of the difference between formal and informal speech
- 2.2
- recognize that communication involves an exchange of ideas (experiences, information, views) and an awareness of the connections between the speaker and the listener; use this awareness to adapt the message, language, and delivery to the context
- 2.4
- recognize that oral communication involves physical qualities and language choices depending on situation, audience, and purpose
- 3.3
- demonstrate an awareness of varieties of language and communication styles − recognize the social contexts of different speech events
Key ideas
Good questions do work: they open up an issue rather than just testing recall.
Formal and informal speech differ in vocabulary, structure, and tone.
Responding thoughtfully means engaging with what was actually asked, not deflecting.
A presentation, a debate, and a casual group chat each call for a different register.
In a Grade-10 discussion, ideas are constructed together — talk moves the thinking forward.
Watch out for
- Asking questions to fill silence rather than to explore an issue.
- Using slang and casual structure in a formal presentation.
- Answering the question you wish had been asked instead of the real one.
Every skill’s key ideas, worked examples and checks are in MapleMind.Practise this unit
Unit 2 · 21 skills
Reading and Viewing
Selecting, Reading, and Viewing Texts
Viewing a wide variety of media and visual texts
I can view and make sense of a wide variety of media and visual texts.
Official code: 4.2
Seeking meaning with reading strategies
I can use a repertoire of reading strategies to make meaning from a text.
Official code: 4.3
Clearing up confusing parts and adjusting reading rate
I can fix confusion in a text and adjust my reading rate to my purpose.
Official code: 4.4
Understanding the impact of literary devices and media techniques
I can explain how literary devices and media techniques shape my understanding of a text.
Official code: 4.5
Interpreting and Combining Information
Researching information systematically
I can research specific information systematically from a variety of sources.
Official code: 5.1
Selecting and evaluating information for a task
I can select information for a task and analyze and evaluate whether it is appropriate.
Official code: 5.2
Integrating information to meet a task
I can integrate chosen information to meet a task or solve a problem.
Official code: 5.2
Responding Personally to Texts
Articulating and supporting a personal response
I can articulate a personal response and support it with evidence from the text.
Official code: 6.1
Questioning, connecting, evaluating, and extending
I can respond to a text by questioning, connecting, evaluating, and extending its ideas.
Official code: 6.2
Making thematic connections across texts and media
I can make thematic connections among print texts, public discourse, and media.
Official code: 6.3
Considering more than one interpretation
I can consider more than one interpretation of a text.
Official code: 6.4
Responding Critically to Texts
Examining aspects of texts that contribute to meaning
I can examine how language, style, graphics, and tone contribute to a text's meaning and effect.
Official code: 7.1
Making inferences and supported responses
I can make inferences, draw conclusions, and support my responses to content, form, and structure.
Official code: 7.2
Exploring relationships among language, genre, purpose, and audience
I can explore how language, topic, genre, purpose, context, and audience relate in a text.
Official code: 7.3
Discussing the characteristics of texts and genres
I can discuss the language, ideas, and significant characteristics of different texts and genres.
Official code: 7.5
Awareness that texts reveal and produce ideologies
I can show awareness that texts reveal and produce ideologies, identities, and positions.
Official code: 7.7
Evaluating how cultures and groups are portrayed in media
I can evaluate how various cultures and groups are portrayed in media texts.
Official code: 7.8
Analysing Gender-Based Violence Through Texts (GCO 11)
Investigating how gender roles and stereotypes are expressed
I can investigate how texts express gender roles, norms, and stereotypes.
Official code: 11.1
Investigating power dynamics and gender
I can investigate how texts show the relationship between power dynamics and gender.
Official code: 11.2
Questioning how gender depictions influence perceptions of consent
I can question how a text's depictions of gender roles and norms influence perceptions of consent.
Official code: 11.3
Analysing how social norms shape bystander responses
I can analyse how social norms influence the way people respond as bystanders.
Official code: 11.4
The official wording · 21 outcomes
- 4.2
- view a wide variety of media and visual texts, such as broadcast, journalism, film, television, advertising, Internet, music videos
- 4.3
- seek meaning in reading, using a variety of strategies such as cueing systems, utilizing prior knowledge, analyzing, inferring, predicting, synthesizing, and evaluating
- 4.4
- use specific strategies to clear up confusing parts of a text (e.g., reread/review the text, consult another source, ask for help) and adjust reading and viewing rate (e.g., skimming, scanning, reading/viewing for detail) according to purpose
- 4.5
- demonstrate an understanding of impact literary devices and media techniques (editing, symbolism, imagery, figurative language, irony, etc.) have on shaping the understanding of a text
- 5.1
- research, in systematic ways, specific information from a variety of sources
- 5.2
- select appropriate information to meet the requirements of a learning task − analyze and evaluate the chosen information
- 5.2
- integrate chosen information, in a way that effectively meets the requirements of a learning task and/or solves personally defined problems
- 6.1
- articulate personal responses to text by expressing and supporting a point of view about the issues, themes, and situations within texts, citing appropriate evidence
- 6.2
- respond to the texts they are reading and viewing by questioning, connecting, evaluating, and extending
- 6.3
- make thematic connections among print texts, public discourse, and media
- 6.4
- demonstrate a willingness to consider more than one interpretation of text
- 7.1
- examine the different aspects of texts (language, style, graphics, tone, etc.) that contribute to meaning and effect
- 7.2
- make inferences, draw conclusions, and make supported responses to content, form, and structure
- 7.3
- explore the relationships among language, topic, genre, purpose, context, and audience
- 7.5
- discuss the language, ideas, and other significant characteristics of a variety of texts and genres
- 7.7
- demonstrate an awareness that texts reveal and produce ideologies, identities, and positions
- 7.8
- evaluate ways in which various cultures and groups are portrayed in media texts
- 11.1
- investigate how gender roles, norms, and stereotypes are expressed
- 11.2
- investigate the relationship between power dynamics and gender
- 11.3
- question how depictions of gender roles and norms influence perceptions of consent in relationships
- 11.4
- analyse how social norms influence the ways people respond as bystanders
Key ideas
Media and visual texts — film, advertising, journalism, music videos — are texts to be read, not just watched.
Systematic research means a plan: what you need, where to look, how to record it.
A personal response is a point of view about a text's issues, themes, or situations.
A text's meaning is built from many aspects working together: language, style, graphics, tone.
Texts express gender roles and norms through characters, language, and images.
Watch out for
- Treating visual media as entertainment only, not as texts.
- Grabbing the first source and stopping.
- Giving a reaction with no support from the text.
Every skill’s key ideas, worked examples and checks are in MapleMind.Practise this unit
Unit 3 · 10 skills
Writing and Other Ways of Representing
Writing to Explore and Reflect
Writing to extend ideas and reflect on learning
I can write to extend my ideas, reflect on my values, and evaluate my learning.
Official code: 8.1
Note-making and representing to reconstruct knowledge
I can use note-making and representations to reconstruct what I have learned.
Official code: 8.2
Choosing language for imaginative effect
I can choose language that creates interesting and imaginative effects.
Official code: 8.3
Creating Texts for Audiences and Purposes
Creating an organizing structure for a text
I can create an organizing structure appropriate to a text's purpose, audience, and context.
Official code: 9.2
Selecting form and style and engaging the reader
I can select form, style, and content for a specific audience and use strategies to engage them.
Official code: 9.2
Reflecting on others' responses to create new pieces
I can analyze others' responses to my work and use them to improve new pieces.
Official code: 9.3
Developing Effective Writing and Representation
Awareness of what writing processes work for you
I can identify which writing and presentation processes work for me for a given audience and purpose.
Official code: 10.1
Using conventions of written language consistently
I can use the conventions of written language consistently in my final products.
Official code: 10.2
Committing to crafting writing and representations
I can commit to crafting a piece of writing or representation, seeing it through revision.
Official code: 10.4
Using materials and ideas to clarify for an audience
I can use materials like graphs, illustrations, and tables to clarify my work for a specific audience.
Official code: 10.5
The official wording · 10 outcomes
- 8.1
- use writing and other ways of representing to − extend ideas and experiences − reflect on their feelings, values, and attitudes − describe and evaluate their learning processes and strategies
- 8.2
- use note-making, illustrations, and other ways of representing to reconstruct knowledge
- 8.3
- choose language that creates interesting and imaginative effects
- 9.2
- create an organizing structure appropriate to the purpose, audience, and context of texts
- 9.2
- − select appropriate form, style, and content for specific audiences and purposes − use a range of appropriate strategies to engage the reader/viewer
- 9.3
- analyze and reflect on others’ responses to their writing and audiovisual productions and consider those responses in creating new pieces
- 10.1
- demonstrate an awareness of what writing/representation processes and presentation strategies work for them in relation to audience and purpose
- 10.2
- consistently use the conventions of written language in final products
- 10.4
- demonstrate commitment to crafting pieces of writing and other representations
- 10.5
- use a range of materials and ideas to clarify writing and other ways of representing for a specific audience (e.g., graphs, illustrations, tables)
Key ideas
Exploratory and reflective writing is for thinking — it extends ideas and surfaces feelings and values.
An organizing structure is the framework — order, sections, flow — that carries a text's ideas.
Writers develop personal processes — outlining, drafting fast, revising in passes — that suit them.
Describing and evaluating your learning processes builds metacognition.
Structure follows purpose, audience, and context: an argument, a report, and a narrative organize differently.
Watch out for
- Treating reflective writing as a formal essay.
- Starting to write with no plan for structure.
- Assuming there is one right process for everyone.
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.
The mark you need
Your class mark counts for 80% of the final mark, the exam for 20%.
You need
50% on the exam
With 75% in class, your final mark lands between 60% (0 on the exam) and 80% (100% on it).
The official curriculum
This page follows Nova Scotia’s own curriculum for English 10.
Study it in MapleMind
MapleMind teaches English 10 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 English 10 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
- 27
- Fillable fields
- 1,471
- Price
- $4.99
Questions about English 10
What is English 10?
Nova Scotia’s Grade 10 English course: 3 units and 37 skills, from Speaking and Listening to Writing and Other Ways of Representing.
What units are in English 10?
1. Speaking and Listening, 2. Reading and Viewing and 3. Writing and Other Ways of Representing.
Is there a provincial exam for English 10?
Yes. The Nova Scotia Exam: English 10 counts for 20% of the final mark. Next sitting: January 26, 2027.
What comes after English 10?
English 11.
Can MapleMind help with English 10?
Yes. MapleMind teaches every skill of English 10, 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 English 10
Practise every skill of English 10 in MapleMind, free with daily limits.
