Hyperbole as a Tool to Motivate Reluctant Writers

From the Marshall Memo #427

“Have you ever encountered students who are able to orally recount vivid, detailed stories from their everyday lives, but then have nothing to write about?” ask Susan Ehmann and Kellyann Gayer in this article in The Reading Teacher. “It’s up to you to harness that excitement in sharing an oral account and help to channel it into the written word.” Hyperbole and exaggeration are authors’ tools that are fun to play with and can be helpful in getting reluctant writers going. 

Ehmann and Gayer suggest priming the pump with some examples from everyday parlance… 

• He’s a skinny as a toothpick.
• I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.
• I have a million things to do today.
• She was so embarrassed she thought she might die.

and then reading selected passages from authors who are good at this, for example, Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School by Mark Teague (Ike’s letters on October 7^th and October 11^th describing how difficult life is for him in Dog Obedience School); Earrings! by Judith Viorst (the eighth page of the story, where a girl tells her parents that she is the only girl in the world who doesn’t have pierced ears); and Diamond Life by Charles R. Smith, Jr. (“To the Moon” in which we eavesdrop on a conversation among a group of Little Leaguers as they describe their batting prowess). Other possible books: Dogs Rule! By Daniel Kirk, Hot City by Barbara Joosse, Someday by Eileen Spinelli, and Whoosh Went the Wind by Sally Derby. 

A teacher might then have students talk about what they noticed and get their reactions to various kinds of hyperbole, the imagery it conjures up, and the authors’ reasons for using it. Students might then explore the use of exaggeration in classroom books over several days, working in pairs or small groups to jot down examples, and sharing them during read-aloud time. Possible discussion questions: How do different writers use hyperbole? Are there similarities? What effect does it have on the reader?

The teacher might then use chart paper or an interactive whiteboard to model turning an ordinary sentence into an extraordinary, or hyperbolic sentence, perhaps introducing illustrations – for example: I dropped the glass on the kitchen floor and it broke becomes I dropped the glass on the kitchen floor and it shattered into a million pieces with a crash that made me jump out of my shoes. Students might then try their hand at transforming some ordinary sentences like: I have a lot of homework. Students might then work independently, and revisit pieces of their own writing that might benefit from a little hyperbole. 

“Toolbox: Emphasize with Extravagant Exaggeration” by Susan Ehmann and Kellyann Gayer (adapted from their book, I Can Write Like That! A Guide to Mentor Texts and Craft Studies for Writers’ Workshop, K-6, International Reading Association, 2009), in The Reading Teacher, February 2012 (Vol. 65, #5, p. 305-307)