Context: year, subject, what you already know

Say where you stand, not only the topic

The topic “fractions” is not context. Fractions in Year 5 are pizza. Fractions in Year 8 are different operations. When you write only a word, the model guesses age, textbook and whether you already know a denominator. Then you get either nursery or university. Context is three bits: year, subject, what you already know or where you got stuck. A fourth bit is what you do not want. That is not bureaucracy. That is a map. Without a map navigation takes you elsewhere. With a map you get an analogy that sits on your desk. Curious trains the map until you write it without thinking. Then comes a shorter prompt — but not before you can do those three bits.

Adam writes “explain fractions”. He gets a definition a student would read. Bára writes: “I am in Year 5, maths. I already know a half and a quarter. I cannot add different denominators. I want pizza, not a formula.” She gets a picture of eight slices in words. Adam looks and says it is unfair, that Bára has better AI. She does not. She has a better map. Together they add year and “I already know” to Adam’s prompt. The second answer is suddenly edible. Bára writes it as a stamp: Year 5 / maths / I already know / I got stuck.

💡

A stamp into every new chat: year, subject, I already know, I got stuck. Four commas. Ten seconds.

The model cannot see your notebook or your timetable

You think it “knows we are Czech” or “knows it is May”. It does not know what you are covering right now. It does not know your teacher banned a calculator. It does not know you started fractions yesterday. Context is your job. When you skip it, the model reaches for an internet average: often too adult, sometimes too childish, sometimes another country, sometimes another meaning of a word. “Root” in science is not “root” in maths. Subject splits that. What you already know stops it explaining pizza when you already add. What you cannot do stops it jumping to square roots. It is politeness to yourself. Not to a brand.

A stamp you can copy and change.

“Year: 6. Subject: history. I already know: who the Hussites were. I got stuck: why they burned Hus. I want: two analogies, not a two-page lecture.”

Bad context: “We are kids, be nice.” That is not a map of the work. That is tone. You can add tone after the map.

A table:

Missing	Typical fault in the answer
year	too hard or too small
subject	the wrong meaning of a word
I already know	it repeats what you know and bores
I got stuck	it misses the core

⚠️

A school name, a class with a list of classmates, or a mark do not belong in context. Year is enough. 学校 is extra data.

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 インベンター 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: Context is year, subject and where you stand — not only a topic. When you can say it to a parent or a teacher, you have got the core. The rest is practice, not magic.

Without a stamp you will blame the model for being stupid. Often it is only blind. Today you treat blindness with four commas. Tomorrow you shorten the prompt, but the stamp stays.

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.

A report outline starts: year, subject, topic, what I already know from the lesson.

📝 Test training

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

A coach must know which test you are training for — subject and chapter, not a name.

📅 Family planner

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

Planner: not year, but the week and types of tasks yes.

📜 An AI code for the class

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

Code: “Without a year we do not ask about schoolwork.”

Workshop: a stamp and two answers

The same topic twice: without context and with a stamp. You will see the difference with your own eyes, not from a sermon.

Pick work from this week. First prompt: one topic word. 送信 it. In the notebook three lines how it sounds (hard / easy / off).
Second prompt in a new chat: stamp year, subject, I already know, I got stuck, a ban on finished homework. 送信 it.
Compare. Which answer could you tell a classmate in your year? Circle it.
Add to the stamp one thing you forgot (say “no English words”). 送信 a third short fix, not a whole novel.
Write the stamp at the start of the Curious notebook. Next time you only rewrite it. The school name is not there.

Practice: fill the map

For each weak prompt add four commas of context.

“Explain a sentence.” (Czech? English? year?)
“Help with circulation.” (water? blood? year?)
“I want something about a war.” (which one, which subject, what you already know from the lesson?)

Now you 💪

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

You can say the stamp by heart: year, subject, I know, I got stuck.
You know a school name does not belong in context.
You have seen the difference between a prompt with a map and without one.

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: You have a stamp in the notebook and one answer that sits on your year.

What to take from this lesson

A topic is not context. A map is year and the work.
A model cannot see a notebook. You describe it.
Four commas save a hallucination from guessing.
A mark and a school do not belong in the stamp.
First a map, then shortening.
The names in the examples (Adam, 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.