October, October – Year 7 Novel Study Teaching Unit

Explore the lyrical and powerful novel October, October by Katya Balen with this engaging teaching pack designed for Year 7 English. This novel unit invites students to explore themes of nature, change, family, resilience, and belonging while developing strong comprehension and analytical skills.

Following the story of October, a girl who grows up living freely in the woods with her father, students examine how her life changes dramatically after an accident forces her to move to the city. Through this emotional journey, students explore ideas about identity, connection to nature, and adapting to unfamiliar environments.

What’s Included:
A structured sequence of Year 7 lessons and classroom activities
Character analysis tasks focusing on October and key relationships in the story
Theme exploration including nature, change, resilience, and belonging
Activities analysing the novel’s poetic language and narrative style
Language and stylistic feature analysis (imagery, symbolism, structure, voice)
Scaffolded analytical paragraph writing support
Creative and reflective tasks that deepen engagement with the novel
Discussion prompts that encourage thoughtful interpretation of the text
Additional hand on learning activities

You can:
Convert to PowerPoint: Upload the PDF to PowerPoint (File → Open) and it will automatically convert to slides.
Use in Google Slides: Upload the PDF to Google Drive, right-click, and open with Google Slides.
Use digitally or print: Upload the PDF to your LMS (Google Classroom, Canvas, etc.) or print it for handouts.
You could also use Canva to upload the PDF and convert and save as a PowerPoint.