EAL/D · B2 learners

2027 prescribed texts

Browse the 2027–2030 EAL/D prescriptions by focus area. Linked texts have study resources in this hub; the other entries are official options, not completed study guides.

Texts and human experiences

  • Stories of Me · official option (Media)
  • Coast Road: Selected Poems · official option (Poetry)
    Required selections

    ‘Journey, the North Coast’, ‘The Meatworks’, ‘To the Master, Dōgen Zenji’, ‘Late Ferry’, ‘Flames and Dangling Wire’, ‘Byron Bay: Winter’, ‘Philip Hodgins (1959–1995)’

  • My People · official option (Poetry)
    Required selections

    ‘Corroboree’, ‘Ballad of Totems’, ‘No More Boomerang’, ‘Son of Mine’, ‘We Are Going’, ‘The Past’, ‘Reed Flute Cave’

  • Past the Shallows · study resources available (Prose fiction)
  • Flock: First Nations Stories Then and Now · official option (Prose fiction)
    Required selections

    van Neerven, Ellen, ‘Each City’; Thompson, Adam, ‘Honey’; Saward, Melanie, ‘Galah’; Saunders, Mykaela, ‘River Story’; Lucashenko, Melissa, ‘Dreamers’; Leane, Jeanine, ‘Forbidden Fruit’

  • The Boy Behind the Curtain · official option (Nonfiction)
    Required selections

    ‘Havoc: A Life in Accidents’, ‘A Walk at Low Tide’, ‘Betsy’, ‘The Wait and the Flow’, ‘Chasing Giants’, ‘The Demon Shark’

Language, identity and culture

  • The Perseverance · official option (Poetry)
    Required selections

    ‘Echo’, ‘Jamaican British’, ‘Ode to My Hair’, ‘Dear Hearing World’, ‘The Ghost of Laura Bridgman Warns Helen Keller About Fame’, ‘Dr Marigold Reevaluated’, ‘To Sweeten Bitter’

  • The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes · study resources available (Poetry)
    Required selections

    ‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers’, ‘Mother to Son’, ‘I, Too’, ‘The Weary Blues’, ‘Madam and the Phone Bill’, ‘Lincoln Theatre’, ‘Theme for English B’

  • The Namesake · official option (Prose fiction)
  • Miss Peony · official option (Drama)
  • Unpolished Gem · official option (Nonfiction)
  • Swallow the Air · official option (Prose fiction)

Close study of text

  • Fahrenheit 451 · official option (Prose fiction)
  • The Collected Poems · official option (Poetry)
    Required selections

    ‘The Tuft of Flowers’, ‘Mending Wall’, ‘After Apple-Picking’, ‘The Road Not Taken’, ‘Nothing Gold Can Stay’, ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’, ‘Acquainted with the Night’

  • Rainbow's End, from Cleven, Vivienne et al., Contemporary Indigenous Plays · official option (Drama)
  • Small Things Like These · official option (Prose fiction)
  • Arrival · study resources available (Film)
  • Judith Wright: Collected Poems · official option (Poetry)
    Required selections

    ‘Northern River’, ‘The Hawthorn Hedge’, ‘The Bushfire’, ‘The Killer’, ‘Flametree in a Quarry’, ‘Train Journey’, ‘Magpies’

Check your course pattern

Study three prescribed texts: one prose fiction, one poetry, and one drama, film, media or nonfiction. Writing selections do not count towards this pattern.

Past the Shallows + Langston Hughes + Arrival meets that pattern. Confirm your school’s chosen texts before preparing exam responses.

NESA selection tool and current list · Official course requirements

Checked against NESA’s live prescriptions list on 8 October 2026. All listed selections in a poetry or short-story suite are required.

Responses save on this browser. Export work from individual labs where available.