HBSE Class 12th English Syllabus 2026: English- Elective, Core and Special

Section

Topics

Notes

Reading Skills

• Unseen prose comprehension passages

• Unseen poetry comprehension passages

Focus on understanding and interpretation

Writing Skills

• Paragraph writing

• Report writing

• Job/application writing

Evaluates formal and expressive language use

Grammar

Integrated grammar based on textbook and language use

Tests accuracy, sentence structure, and grammar application

Prescribed Textbook Literature

From the literature textbook (e.g., Kaleidoscope or equivalent) Short Stories

:• I Sell My Dreams – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

• Eveline – James Joyce

• A Wedding in Brownsville – Isaac Bashevis Singer

• Tomorrow – Joseph Conrad

• One Centimetre – Bi Shu-MinPoetry:

• A Lecture Upon the Shadow – John Donne

• Poems by John Milton• Poems by William Blake

• Kubla Khan – S.T. Coleridge

• Trees – Emily Dickinson

• The Wild Swans of Coole – W.B. Yeats

• Time and Time Again – A.K. Ramanujan

• Blood – Kamala DasNon-Fiction:

• Freedom – G.B. Shaw

• The Mark on the Wall – Virginia Woolf

• Film-making – Ingmar Bergman

• Why the Novel Matters – D.H. Lawrence

• The Argumentative Indian – Amartya Sen

• On Science Fiction – Isaac AsimovDrama

:• Chandalika – Rabindranath Tagore

• Broken Images – Girish Karnad

In-depth literature comprehension, interpretation, and appreciation

Internal Assessment (आंतरिक मूल्यांकन)

Projects, classroom participation, assignments, oral tasks

20 internal marks

Question Paper Structure

Mix of unseen passages, textbook-based questions, grammar, and writing tasks

Detailed pattern and marks distribution in model syllabus PDF

Section

Topics

Marks

Board & Exam Scheme

One annual board exam covering the full English Core syllabus

Theory: 80 marks + Internal Assessment: 20 marks — total 100 marks

Reading Skills

2 Unseen passages for comprehension

20 marks — tests understanding and interpretation

Literature – First Flight (Prose & Poetry)

Prose:

1. A Letter to God

2. Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

3. His First Flight

4. The Black Aeroplane

5. From the Diary of Anne Frank

6. Glimpses of India (three parts

)7. Mijbil the Otter

8. Madam Rides the Bus

9. The Sermon at Benares

10. The Proposal Poems:Dust of Snow, Fire and Ice, A Tiger in the Zoo, How to Tell Wild Animals, The Ball Poem, Amanda!, The Trees, Fog, The Tale of Custard the Dragon, For Anne Gregory

First Flight total: 28 marks

Literature – Footprints Without Feet (Prose)

1. A Triumph of Surgery

2. The Thief’s Story

3. The Midnight Visitor

4. A Question of Trust

5. Footprints Without Feet

6. The Making of a Scientist

7. The Necklace

8. Bholi

9. The Book That Saved the Earth

Footprints Without Feet total: 12 marks

Grammar

Punctuation, articles, tenses, reported speech, modals, sentence types, clauses, non-finites, idioms, phrasal verbs, figures of speech and other integrated grammar topics

10 marks

Writing Skills

Application, letter, event description, paragraphs, story writing, report writing, classified ads, interviews, conversations

10 marks

Internal Assessment (IA)

Assignments, classroom activities, periodic tests, oral work

20 internal marks (not part of written 80)

Question Paper Structure

Combines unseen passages, literature questions, grammar tasks, and writing sections

Detailed pattern as per official board format

Section

Topics

Marks

Reading Skills

Comprehension of unseen passages + Precis writing

20 marks

Writing Skills

• Letter writing

• Paragraph writing

20 marks

Total

Combined external and internal assessment

100 marks

S. No.

Book Title

1

Longman English Grammar

2

Basic English Grammar

3

Martin English Grammar

4

A Practice Book of English Grammar and Composition

5

A Practice Book of English Grammar (Textbook of the Punjab School Education Board)