A guide to integrating knowledge building into your classroom, with Jackie Relyea, Ph.D.

Amplify Education

07 May 2025

In this special episode of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Susan Lambert is joined by Jackie Relyea, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Literacy Education at North Carolina State University, who’ll give you a comprehensive guide to integrating background knowledge into your teaching as, you create a content-rich classroom. Jackie offers insights on why time-tested classroom staples such as read-alouds and word walls are effective tools for building background knowledge … and how to make them even better. She also digs into why vocabulary is just one facet of conceptual knowledge and what the research says about background knowledge for multilingual learners. Show notes: Connect with Jackie Eunjung Relyea, Ph.D:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackie-e-relyea-82953242/ NC State University: https://ced.ncsu.edu/people/jrelyea/ ResourcesThe CLICK LabEffects of Tier 1 Content Literacy Intervention on Early-Grade English Learners’ Reading and Writing. Transactional Development of Science and Mathematics Knowledge and Reading Proficiency for Multilingual Students Across Languages of InstructionListen: The joy of reading aloud, with Molly NessListen: Supporting multilingual/English learners with the Science of ReadingJoin our community Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/scienceofreadingConnect with Susan Lambert: www.linkedin.com/in/susan-lambert-ed-d-b1512761/Quotes: “Literacy for my students meant more than just reading and writing;  it was about access, access to the world, and access to knowledge and opportunities, and even independence—finding their voices.” –Jackie Eunjung Relyea, Ph.D. “You can think of a schema like… mental maps or the frameworks that help us store and organize new information and knowledge. The richer and the more detailed your schema about a particular topic, the easier it is to understand and remember new information about it.” –Jackie Eunjung Relyea, Ph.D. “Vocabulary oftentimes is the tip of the iceberg of the whole: the conceptual knowledge. It's not a simple definition of the single word; it's really conceptual knowledge and understanding that is represented by the word.” –Jackie Eunjung Relyea, Ph.D. Episode timestamps* 02:00 Introduction: Who is Dr. Jackie Relyea? 10:00 Importance of knowledge building 14:00 Reciprocal relationship between reading and knowledge building 18:00 Reading comprehension strategies as scaffolding 21:00 Using interactive read-alouds 24:00 Concept mapping and word walls 26:00 Vocabulary is the tip of the iceberg 28:00 Multilingual learners 37:00 Research on knowledge building *Timestamps are approximate, rounded to nearest minute