- Year 6
Exploring themes in 'No Country'
I can give a personal response to a graphic novel text.
Copyrighted materials: to view and download resources from this lesson, you’ll need to
- Year 6
Exploring themes in 'No Country'
I can give a personal response to a graphic novel text.
Copyrighted materials: to view and download resources from this lesson, you’ll need to
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.
These resources were created for remote use during the pandemic and are not designed for classroom teaching.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- We can develop our personal response to a text by reflecting on what we have read so far.
- When giving a personal response, we can focus on emotional impact, characters, narrative elements, atmosphere & setting.
- One of the prominent themes in the text is survival; it follows a family as they struggle to survive during a civil war.
- Take-away ideas within a graphic novel may link to themes that are explored and developed in it.
Keywords
Personal response - reflections that we make about a text after reading it
Theme - a big idea, topic or message that recurs within a text
Common misconception
Pupils may find it challenging to discuss themes part way through a narrative.
Model examples of themes with how they are portrayed in the graphic novel text. For example, war and politics can be seen in the newspaper clippings and the discussion between Beatrice's parents.
To help you plan your year 6 English lesson on: Exploring themes in 'No Country', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 6 English lesson on: Exploring themes in 'No Country', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom.
Explore more key stage 2 English lessons from the 'No Country' and 'Frizzy': graphic novels exploring identity and belonging unit, dive into the full primary English curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Equipment
You need a copy of the 2021 David Fickling Books edition of ‘No Country’, written by Joe Brady and illustrated by Patrice Aggs, for this lesson.
Content guidance
- Depiction or discussion of upsetting content
- Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering
Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
Licence
Sign in to continue
Our content remains 100% free, but to access certain copyrighted materials, you'll need to sign in. This ensures we’re both staying within the rules.
P.S. Signing in also gives you more ways to make the most of Oak like unit downloads!
