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will explain that in some stories a character may tell another story or remember something. Usually, the events the character is remembering came before the story. This is called a flashback. It is important to understand a flashback so that you can understand when the events occurred and the effect the events have on the current story. I will introduce the book, Tell Me a Story, Mama, by Angela Johnson. I will explain that in this story there are multiple flashbacks. After I read the entire book, I will go back and model identifying the first flashback. This story is about a little girl and her mother telling stories about when her mother was a little girl. The story about the little girl who lived in a white house across a field from a mean lady is about the mother as a little girl. I know that happened before this story because now the mother is grown up and has a little girl of her own. So this is a flashback.

TIP: Charting text evidence that helps students identify flashbacks can be a strong visual aid for this lesson.

Ask: How did I identify flashbacks in the story? Students should respond that as you read the story, you used text and picture clues to identify events that happened before the story.

will reread Tell Me a Story, Mama and identify a second flashback. We will provide evidence from the text that tells us it is a flashback.

TIP: Extend students’ critical thinking skills by guiding a discussion on why books may have flashbacks. Do they help the reader understand the story better?

will identify the remaining flashback in the book Tell Me a Story, Mama and point out evidence from the text that told you this is a flashback.