ABSTRACT
Across our careers as educators, we have taught children to evaluate text difficulty by teaching them the “five-finger rule.” A strategy that is common in classrooms, and that has long been the centerpiece of our efforts to teach students to self-select texts, is the Goldilocks principle. Increasing weight, which is related to how much productive effort an athlete exerts, builds muscle. In this analogy between weights and text difficulty, lifting a “three-pound” weight generally represents the lightest text that is just right for a particular reader. Reading a ten-pound text requires ultimate focus and effort. The Lifting Weights lesson starts by engaging students in lifting a series of four imaginary weights, working from the lightest to the heaviest and noticing the ways the work changes with each increase in weight.
