An example vs. finished homework

The same numbers? Change them. And you calculate.

When you say “show an example”, you should get different numbers than in the homework. When you get exactly the questions from the brief including answers, it is finished homework in disguise. The line is clear: a sample is for learning a method. Homework is for your calculating. After a sample you close the chat or at least hide the answer and calculate yourself. When the model invents an example that does not work, it is a hallucination in maths — you calculate and say it does not sit. This lesson is a bridge to Little bird, where a coach must not say the answer. Today you train the difference on one notebook page: left a sample, right your homework. AI may help on the left. Not on the right.

Bára has 3/8 + 1/8 in the notebook. She writes “calculate it”. She has 4/8. Adam says: “That is homework.” Bára tries again: “Show a DIFFERENT example of adding fractions with the same denominator. Do not say the answer. I will calculate it. Then say only whether my answer sits, when I write it to you.” The model gives 2/5 + 1/5. Bára calculates 3/5. She writes the answer. The model confirms. Only then she calculates 3/8 + 1/8 herself. Adam claps. It is not slower forever. It is honest. A teacher on the margin sees a method. Not chat type.

Sample, shadow, your page

Sample: different numbers, the same method. Shadow: the model shows a step, you copy it. Your page: the original brief. An answer from the chat does not belong here. For a composition a sample is: another topic, a similar structure. Homework: your topic, your sentences. For a report a sample: what a five-point outline looks like on another topic. Homework: your topic. People like to say “it is only an example” and let the original be filled. The word example is an alibi. Your safety net is different numbers and a different title. When the model does not want to give them, you can leave for a textbook. Samples are there too.

Maths as a dry run.

학교 brief: 3/8 + 1/8.

Bad prompt: “Calculate 3/8 + 1/8 and write the method.”

Good prompt: “I am in Year 6. Adding fractions with the same denominator. Show a DIFFERENT example of two fractions. Leave the answer for me. When I write it, say only sits / does not sit.”

Composition as a dry run: Wrong: “Write a composition about my weekend.” Right: “Show a five-point outline of a composition about a trip to the mountains. I will describe my weekend myself.”

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 인벤터 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: An example has different numbers. You calculate your homework. When you can say it to a parent or a teacher, you have got the core. The rest is practice, not magic.

Tomorrow you open a textbook as referee. Without the example/homework difference you would only check someone else’s work in the textbook. Today you know which side of the notebook may have help.

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.

Workshop: left a sample, right homework

Split a page. Left a different example from the chat with no answer. Right the school brief in your hand.

1. Split a notebook page with a line. On the right copy the school example, do not calculate yet. On the left leave space for a sample.

2. Ask a chatbot for a DIFFERENT example of the same type. Clearly: different numbers, no answer. 보내기 it.

3. On the left calculate the sample yourself. Then write the answer into the chat. Let it say only sits / does not sit. If it does not sit, you look for the mistake, do not let it rewrite the whole thing.

4. Only now on the right calculate the school brief. Do not use the chat for that any more.

5. If the model gave the same numbers as school, write stop and ask for different ones. If it does not give them, take a sample from a textbook. That is honest.

Practice: an alibi, or a sample

For each write SAMPLE or HOMEWORK. One sentence why.

1. A prompt with the same numbers as homework and the word “example” in the first sentence.

2. Different numbers, no answer, the same type of fraction.

3. “Write a composition about my weekend so I have a sample.”

Now you 💪

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

1. You recognise the same numbers as a foul.
2. You have in the notebook left a sample, right your work.
3. The answer to the school brief did not come from the chat.

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.

What to take from this lesson

• Example = different numbers, the same method.
• The word example is not an alibi for filling the original.
• Left a sample, right homework.
• Sits / does not sit is enough. A whole method from the chat is not.
• A textbook is a backup sample when the model copies the brief.
• The names in the examples (Bára, Adam) 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.

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