If you’ve ever found yourself staring at a phonics scope and sequence thinking, Where do feelings fit into all this? – you’re as obsessed with SEL and emotional literacy as I am. I realize wondering how to integrate SEL and the science of reading is not something many people think about, but here I am to bring it to light! Structured literacy can feel incredibly technical, especially when we’re talking about phonemes, graphemes, affixes, and syllable types. But what if we could use all of that rigorous, brain-based instruction to also strengthen kids’ emotional literacy?
The truth is, morphology and orthographic mapping are powerful tools for building word recognition and vocabulary, but they also could be an opportunity to help students name, describe, and better understand their feelings.
Let’s talk about how we can bring emotional vocabulary into our word study without sacrificing the science of reading—and why it matters.
Why SEL and the Science of Reading Belong Together
There’s a growing body of research showing that the more precise a child’s emotional vocabulary is, the better equipped they are to regulate their feelings (Barrett, 2017). When students can name their emotions with specificity, beyond just “mad” or “sad”, they’re more likely to use strategies to manage those feelings effectively.
At the same time, we know that deep vocabulary knowledge supports reading comprehension. And one of the best ways to help students store words in long-term memory is through orthographic mapping, the process where readers link the sounds in a word to its letters and meaning (Ehri, 2014).
So why not bring together SEL and the science of reading?
If we intentionally introduce emotionally rich words during our morphology and mapping routines, we’re not just building readers, we’re building emotionally literate humans.
How to Start: Emotion Words as Morpheme Practice
Let’s say you’re doing a morphology mini-lesson on the suffix “-less” (meaning “without”). You might usually use words like hopeless, penniless, or fearless.
But this is a perfect chance to invite SEL and the Science of Reading to combine!
Try words like:
- heartless – without compassion or empathy
- restless – without rest; often a stand-in for anxious or unsettled
- helpless – without help or power, often connected to overwhelm
Each of these words does more than show how a suffix works. They give students a new way to express feelings they’ve absolutely had but may not have had language for.
And when students break the word into parts—help + less, rest + less—they’re building phoneme-grapheme connections, understanding morphemes, and expanding their ability to express their emotions. All at once.
This is also a perfect opportunity to utilize one of my favorite emotional literacy tools, the mood meter as a support for combining SEL and the science of reading. Coined by Dr. Marc Brackett from the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, it creates a place for students to “map” the feeling to show how much energy and pleasantness that emotion carries.
Orthographic Mapping with Feeling
When mapping high-utility words, we usually prioritize decodable, high-frequency vocabulary. But every so often, weaving in an emotion-based word gives students a meaningful connection to what they’re reading and writing.
Let’s take the word frustrated.
- Say the word: frustrated
- Tap out the sounds: /f/ /r/ /ŭ/ /s/ /t/ /r/ /ā/ /t/ /ĕ/ /d/
- Identify the base word: frustrate
- Map it with students:
f – r – u – s – t – r – a – t – e – d
Now tie it to a quick discussion:
- “When do you feel frustrated?”
- “What’s the difference between being frustrated and being angry?”
- “What can we do when we feel that way?”
This builds phonemic awareness, decoding, vocabulary, and self-awareness all in one tight, purposeful lesson.
The SEL Benefit: More Precise Feeling Words
When we limit our emotional vocabulary in the classroom to “happy, sad, mad,” we’re not giving students the tools they need to describe their internal world. But when we integrate emotion-based words into our literacy instruction, we:
- Normalize talking about feelings
- Strengthen vocabulary and comprehension
- Build connections between students’ lived experiences and their academic work
It doesn’t need to be a separate SEL lesson, it can literally live inside your literacy block. SEL and the science of reading for the win.
Practical Routines That Blend Emotion & Word Work
Here are a few easy ways to start embedding emotion vocabulary into your morphology and mapping routines:
1. Word of the Week: Emotion Edition
Choose one feeling word per week that can be broken into meaningful parts. Map it, define it, use it in sentences, and reflect on it during morning meeting or writing time.
Examples:
- disappointed (dis + appoint + ed)
- overwhelmed (over + whelm + ed)
- joyful (joy + ful)
You could use some of the words from the SEL word wall to match your word work structures!
2. Feeling-Based Sorts
Sort words by morphemes and emotional intensity. For example, sort words like annoyed, irritated, furious, enraged and explore what prefixes or suffixes are attached and how the meanings shift slightly. Again, the mood meter is a great tool to support this visually!
3. Emotion Synonym Walls
Build a classroom wall of emotion words, organized by root or prefix. As you introduce new affixes or root words, add to the wall:
- -ous → nervous, anxious, jealous, curious
- dis- → disheartened, disappointed, discouraged
Keep it active! Refer back during writing, reading, or journaling.
4. Emotion Mapping During Read-Alouds
If you’ve been following my work for any length of time, you know using books to enhance SEL skills is literally my passion point. So no surprise here that I find this an excellent place to encourage SEL integration. When reading a text aloud, pause to map a feeling word a character might be experiencing.
- “Right now, I think the main character is resentful. Let’s break that down—re-sent-ful. Do we know what ‘sent’ means in this case? Why do you think that word fits here better than just ‘mad’?”
You Don’t Need a New Curriculum, Just a New Lens
The beauty of this approach is that it doesn’t require new materials or a separate SEL curriculum. It’s about being more intentional, like with the words you already choose during word work.
This is where we can be creative and intentional with our integration of SEL and the Science of Reading. By melding emotion vocabulary into morphology and orthographic mapping, we’re giving kids language to decode the world and their feelings. That’s the kind of literacy that sticks.
