Scriber Lake students performing their own stories find relevance in school

Editor Ingrid Ricks and instructor Marjie Bowker watch their Scriber Lake students autograph books at a past event. (Photo by Janette Turner)
Editor Ingrid Ricks and instructor Marjie Bowker watch their Scriber Lake students autograph books at a past event. (Photo by Janette Turner)

In the search for ways to make schoolwork relevant to students, Marjie Bowker, who teaches English at Edmonds’ Scriber Lake High School, may have hit the jackpot, according to a story from our online news partner The Seattle Times.

Her students — many of them credit-deficient, involved in gangs or otherwise difficult to reach — are now clamoring to participate in Bowker’s “Write to Right” program.

The curriculum, which Bowker created with memoirist Ingrid Ricks after reading her book “Hippie Boy,” teaches ninth graders how to excavate their personal stories, structure them for publication and perform these works for the public. On Friday, at 1 p.m., they will present “Behind Closed Doors: Stories from the Inside Out” at the Seattle Public Theater, located in Bathhouse Theater on Green Lake.

Much of the work covers tough material, including struggles with sexual identity, addiction, self-harm, depression, assault and parents in prison.

You read the complete Times story here.

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