What is "Reading", Anyway?

Reading is figuring out words.

From the time our kids look at the printed word, we are teaching them how words work and what they mean.  We teach them multiple strategies for decoding.  For, if a we can't figure out the words, we cannot understand the text.

Reading is reading at an appropriate pace.

From the time our kids are reading sentences across the page, we teach them what fluent reading sounds like and feels like.  They know that to read too fast may mean a book is too easy, and that to read too slow means a book may be too hard.  Reading at a just-right pace means we can read enough pages at a time to grow as readers.  If we do not, we may not really understand what we read.

Reading, most importantly, is thinking. 

Comprehension is the single most important goal of reading.  To think, to understand, to contemplate, to grow new ideas and new ways of viewing the world.  We read to become informed citizens and powerful human beings.  Without strong comprehension, none of this is possible.