There is no such thing as a reluctant reader
Only a reader who hasn't been handed the right book yet, or been allowed to argue with it. Here's the reading-circle fix…
Read →A page from the preface
FROM THE AUTHOR —— Priya
I was the child who read under the desk. By Grade 9 I'd finished the school library's fiction shelf and started on the staff-room castoffs. What I didn't have was anyone to talk to about any of it — so I became the teacher I'd wanted: one who treats a fourteen-year-old's reading of a poem as worth arguing with.
Thirteen years on, I still teach for the reader under the desk and, just as hard, for the one who insists they 'hate reading.' They don't. They've just never been shown that a text is an argument they're allowed to answer back to. Literature first, then the machinery of language — grammar in service of voice, never the reverse.
If your school wants English taught as thinking, not decoding, I'd love to talk.
What I teach, graded
Every strand of English, marked the way I'd mark an essay — generously, but honestly.
Literature (Gr 11–12 & board)poetry, drama, the novel
A+
Close reading & criticismunseen texts, analysis
A+
Essay & academic writingstructure, argument, style
A
Grammar & language mechanicsin service of voice
A
Creative writing & poetryschool magazine, clubs
A-
Debate & public speakingMUN, elocution, rhetoric
A
Every lesson, a narrative arc
FREYTAG'S PYRAMID · HOW A CLASS SHOULD FEEL
Priya's view: A good English class is a story with a shape. You open with a hook, you let the tension of a difficult text build, you reach the turn where the meaning cracks open — and then you make them land it in their own words. Comprehension isn't recall; it's the ability to rewrite a thing and keep its soul.
- Open with a hook — a line, an argument, a mess to untangle.
- Build the tension: what does the text refuse to say plainly?
- The turn — the sentence, image, or idea that changes everything.
- Land it in their own words. If they can write it, they understood it.
Where the reading began
2009 — 2011
M.A. English Literature
University of HyderabadFirst class · Gold Medal2011 — 2012
B.Ed. (English)
St. Teresa's College, ErnakulamDistinction · 81%2006 — 2009
B.A. English (Hons)
Maharaja's College, KochiFirst class · 76%2004
Class XII (Humanities)
St. Mary's, KochiEnglish: 96 · CBSECited & certified
CBSE Board Examiner — English CoreClass XII · since 2015
Cambridge CELTAEnglish language teaching · 2013
IB English A: Lang & Lit workshopCategory 1 · 2018
NCERT Resource Person (English)Curriculum panel · 2020
Thirteen years, in chapters
2016 — PRESENT
Head of English
Rajagiri Public School, Kochi
Lead a 7-teacher department; founded the school literary magazine 'Palimpsest'; board English distinctions rose from 34% to 71% of the cohort.
2012 — 2016
Senior English Faculty
Choice School, Kochi
Grades 9–12 literature and language; coached the MUN and debate teams to three state championships; started the unseen-poetry clinic.
2008 — 2012
English Teacher
Bhavan's Vidya Mandir, Kochi
Grades 8–10; built the reading-circle program that doubled library circulation in two years — my first proof that reluctant readers don't exist.
Marks in the margin
State Award for Excellence in English Teaching2022Kerala Dept. of Education
Board distinctions 34% → 71% in five years2021Rajagiri, Grade 12 English
Founder & editor, 'Palimpsest' anthology2017–Now in its 6th annual edition
Published: 'The Reader Under the Desk'2023Teacher Plus — on reluctant readers
The classroom, illustrated
Replace these placeholders with real photos in the admin panel.
Poetry recitation, senior elocution
'Palimpsest' launch, annual edition
The unseen-poetry clinic, Grade 12
MUN delegation, state finals
Reading circle, the library corner
Shakespeare staged, Grade 10
Notes I keep writing in the margins
Grammar is not the enemy of voice
Teach the comma splice as a choice, not a crime, and watch students start caring how a sentence lands…
Read →How to mark 340 essays without dying
The three-pass method, the one comment that matters, and why rubrics should be written by the students first…
Read →Kind words
“Ma'am made me argue with a poem I hated. I ended up loving it. That's a superpower.”
AnanyaGrade 12, 2025“My son went from 'English is boring' to editing the school magazine. I still don't fully believe it.”
ParentGrade 9 program“She rebuilt our English results and our reading culture at once. The department is unrecognisable.”
PrincipalRajagiri Public SchoolThe next chapter
Teacher available — turning the page
NEXT INTAKE: APRIL 2027 · ONE DEMO LESSON, ANY TEXT
Current employerRajagiri Public School, Kochi
Current roleHead of English
Open toHOD English · Senior Faculty · IB Lang & Lit · Curriculum & literary programs
Expected salary₹9–13 LPA
Willing to relocateYes — Kochi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune · CBSE / IB schools
Notice period90 days
Principal, Rajagiri Public SchoolCurrent employer · Shared on request
Director, Choice School2012–16 · Shared on request
Find your way here
Current address7, Panampilly Nagar, Kochi 682036, Kerala
Phone / WhatsApp+919999999999
Note for recruitersRecruiting for English? Give me one unseen poem and a class that 'hates reading' — I'll take that bet.
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