Hyperbole: You’ve Heard a Billion of ‘Em!
Hyperbole: Lesson Plan
Topic
A hyperbole is a figure of speech in which an exaggerated statement is made. This
statement is not intended to be taken literally and quite often does not make sense if it
is. People generally use hyperboles when they want to stress a particular point or when
they want to convey an intense feeling.
Possible subjects/classes Time needed
● English
● Public Speaking / Debate 30-45 minutes
● Politics
Video link:
[Link]
Objective: What will students know/be able to do at the end of class?
By the end of this lesson students will be able to:
● Define hyperbole
● Identity and list examples of hyperboles
● Explain the purpose hyperboles serve as a rhetorical tool and how to effectively
use them
Key Concepts & Vocabulary
Hyperbole, exaggeration, figure of speech, overstatement
Materials Needed
N/A
Before you watch
Read, write, or project the following short story:
Philip runs faster than the wind and passed his coach who’s as tall as a house. He
spots Akira in the stand. Her smile is a mile wide. He grins back, even though he’s
exhausted. It’s so hot Phillip can feel the turf burning through his shoes. This
practice will never end, Phillip thinks to himself.
Hyperbole: You’ve Heard a Billion of ‘Em!
Turn & Talk
Ask students to list overstatements that they spotted in the reading. Have them explain
what these exaggerated statements mean (i.e. Saying “I’m as hungry as a horse” means
that the speaker is famished, not that they could eat an actual trough’s worth of food). Be
sure to stress that the literal meaning of these phrases makes little sense in the context
of the story.
While you watch
Define hyperbole
What is the purpose of using hyperbole in writing?
After you watch/discussion questions
1. Can you think of a common hyperbole you’ve recently used?
2. When do you tend to use or see hyperboles used in your daily life?
Activity Ideas
1. Quick-write a story using as many hyperboles as possible
2. Share a time that you exaggerated to make a point? What effect did it
have? Did it help or hurt you in getting your point across?
3. Have students work in pairs to list as many understatements they can think of in
three minutes. Discuss each group’s answers with the class.
Sources/places to learn more
1. Callister, Mark A. Ph.D. & Lesa A. Stern Ph.D. “The Role of Visual Hyperbole in
Advertising Effectiveness”. Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, vol
29, issue 2, 2007, pp 1-14. doi:10.1080/10641734.2007.10505212
2. Claridge, Claudia. Hyperbole in English: A Corpus-based Study of Exaggeration.
Cambridge University Press, 2011. ISBN 978-0-521-76635-7.
3. Colston, L. Herbert and Shauna B. Keller. “You’ll Never Believe This: Irony and
Hyperbole in Expressing Surprise”. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, vol 27,
issue 4, July 19989, pp 499-513. doi: 10.1023/A:1023229304509.
4. McCarthy, Michael and Ronald Carter. “‘There’s millions of them’: hyperbole in
everyday conversation”. Journal of Pragmatics, vol 36, issue 2, February 2004,
pp 149-184. doi: 10.1016/S0378-2166(03)00116-4.
Hyperbole: You’ve Heard a Billion of ‘Em!
5. Varga, Donna. “Hyperbole and Humor in Children’s Language Play”. Journal of
Research in Childhood Education, vol 14, issue 2, 200, pp 142-151. doi:
10.1080/02568540009594759
*Note: Hyperboles can be presented as comparison (i.e. He’s as old as the hills) so
students might have trouble telling them apart from similes or metaphors. Hyperboles
are not always direct comparisons, whereas similes and metaphors are. The defining
feature of a hyperbole is that it is an exaggerated statement not meant to be taken
literally.
Similarly, students often have trouble differentiating a hyperbole and an idiom. The main
difference is that idioms have a figurative meaning distinct from its literal meaning, which
is why they can be tricky for non-native English speakers to master. Figuratively, saying
that a math exam “was a piece of cake” means that it was not difficult to complete. Taken
literally, however, one might interpret the test as having cake-like qualities - like tasting
sweet. Encourage students to break the troubling statement apart word by word and see
if they can still understand its meaning or if another, perhaps more nonsensical, meaning
emerges.