📮 Homework · How AI reads: Tokens and the pieces of language

Find three things at home that have a compound-word name (like 'toothbrush' or 'sunflower') and split each one into two chunks on the sheet.

Write down three words you think would confuse the AI chopper. Bring them next lesson and we will try them out together.

Find the longest word in your current reading book. Split it into morphemes. Bring both the word and your split next lesson.

On the way home, find three compound words on signs or shop names. Bring them next lesson. We will tokenise them together.

Choose the three hardest words from this week's spelling list. Tokenise each. Write each word out five times, chunk by chunk.

Ask someone at home for a hello or a thank-you in a language they know. Bring the word next lesson so we can tokenise it together.

Choose one line from your favourite song at home. Write it down. Bring it next lesson. We will count its beats and tokenise it together.

Interview a family member for two dialect words they use that are not standard English. Bring both, along with what they mean, next lesson.

Make a one-slide poster of the bit-byte-character-token ladder that a Year 5 class could understand. Include one example for each rung.

Type your family members' names into your word breaker. Note down how each name splits. Bring the notes next lesson.

Pick any three English words with a repeated letter — one you use often, one you find hard to spell, and one a family member suggests. For each word: ask an AI chatbot 'how many of the letter X are in the word Y?' — record the AI's answer, whether it was correct, and (if it was wrong) whether asking the AI to write each letter on its own line fixed the answer.

Ask a family member how they decide whether to trust an AI's version of something. Bring their answer, in one sentence, next lesson.

Ask a family member for one place name from a country they know that the AI would probably struggle with. Bring the name next lesson so we can tokenise it together.

If you know an adult from a faith community, ask them (with permission from a parent) how they feel about AI chatbots writing about their tradition. Bring one sentence of what they said next lesson.

If your school shares site with a primary, or if you know a KS2 teacher, ask them one question: how do they teach reading, and would AI change it? Bring their answer next lesson.

Choose one language spoken in your school community. Read one paragraph about its structure (a wikipedia summary in the school library is fine). Bring one interesting fact about it and one prediction about which tokeniser fits it best.

Find one poem, article or song lyric written in a non-standard variety of English. Tokenise a stanza or paragraph. Bring both the text and the tokenisation next lesson.

Look up the current published token prices for two AI providers. Bring both prices next lesson. We will re-run the calculation with each.

Write the complete 500-word Paper 1 Q3-style analysis of the passage. Include three quoted phrases and one tokenisation link. Bring next lesson for peer marking.

Interview a family member who speaks a language other than English. Ask: do they use AI in their other language? What is different when they do? Bring three sentences of what they said next lesson.

Read the abstract of one research paper on BPE tokenisation (a printout will be provided). Summarise it in three bullet points. Bring next lesson.