Maybe, maybe not. What makes an urban legend? Why do some of them spread so easily? What purpose do they serve? Can they be helpful? Harmful? Campers in Legends Exposed: Unraveling Urban Myths are investigating the answers to these questions during their time at SCATS.
Over the last several days, students have worked on identifying patterns in urban legends so that they will be able to make better choices when they encounter urban legends. Once they had a working definition and determined what actually had to be included for a story to qualify as an urban legend, they started looking at how many legends vary in pop culture and how social media helps them spread.
They investigated two popular urban legends that are driven by social media; the Momo challenge and Slenderman. This investigation led the class to determine that while many urban legends may be innocuous and silly, some, including these two, are not. As part of their classwork, the students created PSA’s to inform people about the two stories.
They began work on creating their own urban legend as the final project for the class. Their stories must use all the elements of an urban legend and be creative and original. Their partner will then have the opportunity to debunk their story. It will be interesting to see what they come up with!
