In Japanese: 手を動かしながら読む. Direct translation: Read while moving hands

What I want to describe:

While reading books

not only by chasing a sentence with eyes

but also by using hands

concrete examples:

by typing the source code,

by taking notes of things that you thought important,

by developing mathematical expressions.

suggestion from a reviewer: "to learn by writing"

It is not restricted to "writing", but it looks better than "with hands"