The pupil starts off any assignment by reading it thoroughly. The teacher only coaches when the pupil fails to do this by himself.
The pupil makes sure he gets a helicopter view of the assignment. The teacher may demonstrate this step when discussing the assignments. The teacher may point out the presence of figures, but only when the pupil clearly fails to notice them..
All information is of importance for tracking down the goal of the assignment which, in turn, is essential for being able to do the assignment successfully. When you are well aware of your task, it becomes easier (and quicker) to perform.
The pupil looks at the complete assignment and reads it by reading the full text thoroughly and looking at all figures, including diagrams and other visual information.
Word problems are a good example of assignments where the pupil has to read everything well to extract the right information and to find out what the question actually is. There are several books on the market with word problems (such as Redactiesommmen voor groep 4 by De Bijlesmeester; for English: online worksheets Word problems).
