Check: open a textbook · Code with Martin

First a page, then trust

Checking “in another AI window” is like asking a second cook if the first salted well, when both cook by guess. Sometimes they agree on a mistake. A textbook, an atlas, a reader, notes from a lesson, a teacher — those are referees that are not the same type of tool. Curious gets used to opening a book every time an answer has a name, a date, a definition, a number. Not once a month. Every time, until it is a reflex. A reflex is faster than embarrassment at the board. A book also shows what you covered, not what the internet average is. That is why the textbook is the hero in this lesson. Wiki comes in Detective. Today what you have in the bag is enough.

Ema gets a nice definition of an island from the chat. Bára opens geography on the page with the definition. A word the model added is missing there, and in the book there is a bay the model stayed silent about. Ema rewrites into the notebook a sentence from the book in her own words. She leaves the chat as an analogy with a bath — that is not in the book, but it does no harm if she does not swap it for a definition in a test. The teacher wants the book core. An analogy is for understanding. Ema marks with colour: yellow = from the book, green = analogy from the chat. Into a test goes yellow. This is a check, not distrust of a friend. A chatbot is not a friend.

💡

Put a textbook on the keyboard. Before you send another prompt, you must see a page. Otherwise a check is theory.

Two columns of truth: a book and an analogy

A book carries a definition school tests. An analogy from the chat carries a picture in the head. When you mix them into one paragraph and hand it in, you risk someone else’s fact. That is why columns. Left: a page citation (textbook p. 22). Right: a comparison that does not count in a test, but helped. When an analogy contradicts the book, the analogy falls. Always. Even if it is funnier. A second chatbot as a check is a bonus only after a book, not instead of it. A teacher is the referee when a book and a head contradict. You do not ask the model who is right. You ask a person.

A three-minute method.

Answer from the chat: underline facts (names, numbers, definitions).
Find the chapter. Page. Read.
Does it sit? Rewrite in your own words + page.
Does it not sit? Cross out. Do not leave it in the notebook “just in case”.
An analogy that does not contradict may stay in the right column.

A mini table:

Source	Role
textbook	referee for school
notes from a lesson	referee of your class
chatbot	a draft analogy
a second chatbot	not a referee

⚠️

Do not photograph into the chat a page with a name and a school stamp. Open a book with your eyes. A prompt in words: “definition of an island, Year 6” is enough.

Why this right now

You are in the course Ask with Martin, level Curious. You work in a chatbot (ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude) — same game, different brand. No code. A parent or the school creates the account. A child’s email does not belong here.

This is not the Inventor level. There you build a chatbot on your own website. Here you are a user: a question, a check, a citation.

You will know this lesson by one sentence: The referee is a textbook. A second AI is only another cook. When you can say it to a parent or a teacher, you have got the core. The rest is practice, not magic.

Tomorrow you catch a made-up date. Without a book reflex you will look for the date only in the chat again. Today you give a book a place on the table. Physically.

Four things you will build in this course

The course has four small projects. You do not have to do them all at once. Today you add only what this lesson can do.

🏫 A report with citations

An outline, three sources that exist, and a sentence in your own words. AI must not be the only author.

Report: every strong sentence has a page or an atlas.

📝 Test training

Coach role: let it ask, do not let it say the answer. You count / answer yourself.

Training: check an answer in notes from the lesson, not in the coach.

📅 Family planner

Tasks for the week (not passwords, not marks). A parent sees the plan, not your chat.

Planner: check an event date in the school portal, not in the model.

📜 An AI code for the class

Seven short rules on a poster. No horror — a how-to.

Code: “First a book, then the chat.”

Workshop: a book on the keyboard

You physically put a textbook on the keyboard. One question. One page. Two columns in the notebook.

Open this week’s chapter. Put the book so you cannot type until you slide it aside. That is deliberate friction, so you do not forget.
Slide it aside, write a short prompt with a stamp for an analogy to a term from the page. Send it. Put the book back on the keyboard at once.
Slide it aside again. Compare. In yellow (or underline) what is in the book. Put the analogy next to it if it does not contradict.
If the model added a name or a number that is not on the page, cross it out. Do not look for an excuse.
In the notebook two columns: book / analogy. Close the chat. Say the definition out loud from the left column.

Practice: who is the referee

For each dispute write whom you ask first.

Chat A says 1415, chat B says 1412. What do you reach for?
An analogy with a bath vs. a definition in geography. What goes into a test?
Notes from a lesson differ from the chat. Whom do you ask if you do not know?

Now you 💪

Go through three checks. At each one tick in your head: can I see it, or not?

A textbook was physically on the table by the chat today.
You know a second chatbot is not a referee.
You have two columns: a book and an analogy.

If something is missing, go back to the steps above. This is not a test for marks. It is a safety net, so you go on sure, not confused.

✅

Check: One definition in the notebook stands on a textbook page, an analogy is next to it and does not mix into a test.

What to take from this lesson

The referee is a book, notes, a teacher.
A second AI is not proof.
Two columns: a fact and an analogy.
A book on the keyboard = a reflex.
If an analogy contradicts a book, the analogy falls.
The names in the examples (Ema, Bára) are made up. Do not put your number, email or photo here.
Next lesson: When you can do this, go to the next lesson in the same level.