Why do students do this?

There are three possible things going on:

1) Some kids flatly will exaggerate the point-- especially if the child is in trouble and is trying to paint the teacher as a bully to maybe get out of trouble themselves.

2) The more common thing, though, is that kids really DON'T know the difference between a teacher fussing at them or yelling at them. In fact, most children somehow internalize a definition of "yell" that basically means "get in trouble." Kids usually first learn the word "yell" in connection to being in trouble, and to them, being in trouble sticks in their minds more than the volume of the adult's voice. In other words, "yelling" and "shouting" are NOT synonyms to most kids, especially younger kids. So the kids will go round saying that they got yelled at by so-and-so when what they actually mean is that so-and-so fussed at them. The kids are not purposely lying, fibbing, or exaggerating. They just really don't get the adult definition that yelling means raising your voice. They think they're just saying that their teacher was lecturing them or something.

3) How they feel during and afterward will partly determine how they remember it. This isn't a fault of kids but instead the problem of how the human brain works. Even adults struggle with this little detail. Fact is that if you feel as though you've been berated, you will say you've been yelled at regardless of how loud the person's voice volume was. And in the end, this is really all that matters. No matter how loud your voice really was, if you left the other person feeling as though they had been yelled at, then basically, you WERE berating them.

As a teacher, what I find works best is that if there's a problem with a student or a class:

1) Make sure I'm calm. If I don't feel calm about it, then I take a time-out, count to ten, picture my son's face, force myself to think of three nice things about the student, etc. Basically, do something--anything--to feel more calm.

2) Confront the student/class about the problem.

3) With younger kids in particular, point out more than once, "Hear I'm not raising my voice? I'm not yelling at you. We are discussing a problem that we can fix."

4) Give a solution to try. Don't just yell at the class for being chatty, for example. Instead, try changing the seating arrangements to limit chattiness.

Some students are easily hurt or annoyed when a teacher scolds them and when asked what happened, they tell the story their way, which is often over dramatic. But sometime's they're right so, it depends.

Because they're kids. It's what they do unfortunately. Teachers are aware that this happens, and have been coached in the proper ways to deal with those situations.

Do you really think kids won't exaggerate things to avoid admitting they did something to earned the response they got?

They wouldn't get the reaction they want if they told the truth.