The Steps of Reading

Reading is a very complicated procedure. Your mind is processing information, looking at pictures, reading headings, analyzing periods, making inferences, bridging examples, studying main topics, discovering details, and thousands of other things.
What we have to learn in order to read better is “How I Read.” Yes, I know you start left and go right and start top and read down, but there is more to it. Please read the excerpt below and think about how you are reading it. After each sentence describe how you read it. Were there any words you did not know? Did you think about something you know about the topic? Tell me about the assumptions you are making along the way, tell me about your prior knowledge.
This is a very difficult task to do and your effort on the assignment will be easily seen in the amount that you tell me. Again, this is a graded assignment and counts as a homework grade.
I have done an example to show you what I am looking for. If you have any further questions please email me.

Reading Excerpt
“Leading investors (who?) have joined (the secret league of leading investors) the growing (increasing) chorus (there are many people worried) of concern (they are worried about something) about governments and companies rushing (hurrying research? Not thinking of all the possibilities) into producing biofuels (yumm, soybeans. I remember doing a project with a student and his subject was biofuels) as (biofuels cars) a solution (I thought this was a reoccurring thing that has happened over millions of year. What says we can fix it now?) for global warming (heating of the earth), saying that many involved in the sector could be jeopardizing (hurting) future profits (cash money) if they do not consider the long-term impact (down the road impact) of what they are doing carefully. (Are the companies and government truly researching the topic or are they rushing into it without proper knowledge?) (Business Journal)

As you can see above, you are not just reading words, but as you continue to read you are gathering more and more information until you have all the information and can piece the story back together. Think of it like raking leaves. Your parents will not let you come in the house until you have picked up all the leaves. So, you slowly start gathering them and putting them into piles. Then you grab a wheel barrow and put them in one big pile. That large pile of leaves is your large pile of knowledge/facts gained from the reading. Now normally, when reading, this happens in seconds/milliseconds. But in this exercise it took me 12 minutes to read the short paragraph because I was stopping after each sentence to ask a question or summarize.

Below is the excerpt I would like you to read. Please paste the reading into your comment box and follow my lead. Please use the same amount of detail (or more) in your response. Please put your thoughts in parenthesis, so that I know it was your thought.

Reading excerpt
“Dusk was falling last Tuesday when news of the attack on America first reached this war-ruined city, Kabul. In the dusty twilight, Afghans held radios to their ears, listening to static-filled accounts on the Voice of America and the BBC Pashto- and Persian-language services. Because the country's Taliban rulers forbid television, Afghans could see no pictures of the destruction that had people everywhere else glued to their sets. The immensity of the World Trade Center had to be described. When Afghans asked me about the Twin Towers, I compared them to Afghanistan's giant Bamiyan Buddha statues, a symbol of national heritage that the Taliban blasted to dust six months ago.” (Hannah Bloch)