The difference between the typical home cook and a chef is the knowledge and understanding of how to make little adjustments that make a big impact while cooking. Most home cooks are quite comfortable following a recipe and getting a decent result. A chef, on the other hand, will taste the food as they are creating to enable them to make little adjustments as they go which will result is something quite incredible. Both culinary creators can start with the same set of ingredients and end in completely different places as far as flavor goes. And I’m pretty sure that most of the time I would rather eat the chef’s creation.
Just making a prediction is like being a home cook. You take the ingredients – text and picture evidence along with your schema – and make a statement about what could happen next. At that point, you’ve followed all the directions and you just kind of set it and forget it. There is little brain work to be done as you followed the recipe and got a result – an open schema file. It’s a bit mechanical – the file is open but mostly ignored. It gets you to the end but it isn’t very nuanced. But making a prediction doesn’t have to be that way. You are capable of much more.
How do you become a prediction master chef with bold choices and incredible flavors? You do as chefs do and you check in on what you’ve put into the dish. You keep making small adjustments as necessary. You think about what could take your ingredients and send them to the next level.
Let’s take a look at what this looks like practically using the story below – thanks Chat GPT for a quick story to use.
The Tea Party Twist
Once upon a time in a small, sun-dappled town, three friends named Emma, Lily, and Grace decided to throw the perfect tea party. They had been dreaming of it for weeks—an afternoon filled with delicate finger sandwiches, tiny pastries, and, of course, pots of steaming tea. It was to be an afternoon of laughter, gossip, and stories shared under the shade of the big oak tree in Emma’s backyard.
Emma, the planner of the group, had already decided on the menu: cucumber sandwiches, scones with clotted cream, lemon tarts, and a variety of teas. Lily, with her flair for decoration, had taken charge of the aesthetic. She’d spent the morning gathering mismatched vintage teacups, lace tablecloths, and a few bouquets of fresh wildflowers from the garden. Grace, who was a natural at baking, had made the scones and cookies—perfectly golden and crumbly.
But there was one problem.
They didn’t have enough tea.
Stop and make an initial prediction. My initial predictions is Emma, being the planner, is going to panic. She will, though in hysterics, look for a solution to keep the party from being ruined.
It wasn’t that they didn’t have tea at all. In fact, Emma had bought several boxes of loose leaf teas—a fragrant Earl Grey, a calming chamomile, and a citrusy green tea. But when they started setting the table and realizing the size of their guest list, a small panic set in. There were nine of them in total, including Emma, Lily, and Grace. And each person, naturally, would want at least one cup of tea. Maybe two.
Emma, who had been arranging the teacups on the table, stood up with a sigh. “We’re going to run out of tea before everyone even gets a second cup,” she said, looking at the small mound of tea leaves in the tin.
Lily, ever the optimist, waved her hand dismissively. “Oh, don’t worry about it! I’m sure everyone will be fine with just one cup. It’ll be so much fun, they won’t even notice.”
But Emma didn’t feel so sure. Grace, who had been placing the scones in a neat stack, chimed in. “Maybe we can just brew smaller cups, like tiny sips? That way, it’ll stretch further.”
Does this new information merit an adjustment to your prediction? Taste your prediction like a chef would taste their creation and add a little salt or maybe some extra rosemary. When I look back at my initial prediction I notice that the new evidence changes somethings and I need to make a minor adjustment. My new prediction could read Emma, being the planner, is very concerned. She will continue to work through possible solutions with her friends because they all want the party to go well. While the new prediction holds some of the same concepts as the first predictions, some pretty significant adjustments needed to be made because Emma did not react as anticipated. I likely made the first prediction knowing that I, as a planner, tend to panic when something looks like a problem. As I kept reading, I learned that Emma and I do not have the same personality. The new prediction shows a better understanding of her personality and the friendship between the girls.
Lily had a better idea. “What if we make the tea really strong? That way, each cup will go a lot further. People might not even need a refill.”
But Emma was unconvinced. “Strong tea is fine, but if it’s too strong, people won’t enjoy it. I want everyone to have a good time. Plus, we promised the best tea party ever, remember?”
The three friends huddled together, deep in thought, when an idea sparked in Emma’s mind. “Wait! We can use some other drinks to fill in. What if we made some iced herbal infusions? You know, like mint or berry, so people can mix and match?”
Lily’s eyes lit up. “That could work! And we could call it ‘Tea Party with a Twist’! Plus, we already have a ton of fruit in the fridge.”
Grace smiled. “I can do a mint lemonade. It’s kind of like tea but a little more refreshing.”
Emma clapped her hands. “Perfect! Okay, so we’ll brew the tea extra strong and have a few other drink options. That way, no one has to feel left out.”
We have more information again. Does your prediction hold up? Is it perfect? Or is another adjustment in order? In looking back, I notice that my prediction is now obsolete because it happened. I’ll need to make a completely new prediction moving forward. Though I think you now likely understand what I mean by go back and make adjustments like a chef checking in on their gourmet meal, I will add the rest of the story here before I wrap up this post because anyone who is like me needs to know how it ends.
Soon, the backyard was transformed. The lace tablecloth was set, the mismatched teacups glistened in the sun, and the guests began to arrive. They were all charmed by the whimsical setup and the delicious spread of treats. When it came time to serve the drinks, Emma poured the potent tea first, offering it with a smile. “It’s extra strong today—just the way we like it!” she announced.
Lily quickly followed with her berry-infused water, a gorgeous mix of raspberry and hibiscus petals, and Grace’s mint lemonade, which was chilled to perfection. People marveled at the variety and, to Emma’s relief, no one seemed to mind that there wasn’t an endless supply of tea.
As the afternoon wore on, the conversation flowed just as freely as the drinks. They laughed about old memories, shared stories of their most recent adventures, and even played a few rounds of charades. Every once in a while, someone would take a sip of their tea or the berry infusion, savoring the flavors, but no one ever seemed to be waiting for more.
By the end of the day, everyone agreed it had been the best tea party they’d ever been to. Even with the tea running low, the variety of drinks and the care they’d put into the gathering made it special. And as the sun began to dip behind the oak tree, Emma, Lily, and Grace sat back, sipping the last of the tea from their own cups, feeling content.
“We should definitely do this again,” Grace said, her voice soft with a smile. “Maybe next time, we’ll just make sure there’s enough tea for everyone.”
Emma laughed, holding up her teacup. “Next time, we’ll have plenty of tea—and maybe a few surprises, too.”
And so, despite the initial panic over the tea shortage, their friendship—and their tea party—had been more than enough.
Now that we can move on since we know the end of the story, let’s talk about why going back to consider our predictions makes us a more thoughtful reader. Thoughtful readers are readers who are trying to interact and interpret the text to the best of their ability. They are looking to dive more deeply than the typical reader to gain insight and higher levels of enjoyment from a text. As we’ve talked before, making predictions helps us to open our schema files allowing us to be more prepared for what lies ahead in a story. By going back to these predictions and making adjustments, the reader is making sure the correct schema files are open and he or she is actively engaging with the files making the reading experience more immersive. Making a prediction and leaving it behind to later down the road make a new prediction is better than only making one prediction but the insights and thinking that is gained by checking on previously made predictions and making adjustments to that initial prediction far outpaces the repeat predictor.
There you have it. It’s time to put on those chef hats and learn to nuance those predictions. There are many other steps you can take as you work together to become thoughtful readers who predict as they are reading but to get those you’ll need to check back to the blog and join us on the socials – Facebook, Instagram and Threads – even better, join our email list as subscribers always get exclusive content to just how to raise and be a thoughtful reader.
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