Grounded in Ontario’s Supporting English Language Learners: A Practical Guide for Ontario Educators and the Steps to English Proficiency (STEP) User Guide

Introduction

Every year, more classrooms across Ontario welcome students who are new to English. Teachers want to do their best for these students, but the challenge often feels overwhelming. How can you keep up with the curriculum, manage a room full of diverse learners, and also create a second set of lessons tailored to English language learners (ELLs)? The good news is that you do not have to.

Supporting ELL students does not mean doubling your workload. It does not mean building a parallel curriculum or rewriting all of your lessons. It is about making smart, purposeful adjustments to everyday teaching so students at all levels of English proficiency can access meaningful learning. Ontario’s Supporting English Language Learners and the STEP User Guide provide clear frameworks. These documents remind us that ELL students are learners first. They need to be included, immersed, and valued — not given busy work apart from the class.

Strategies that help ELLs make the classroom stronger for everyone. Visuals, hands-on inquiry, chunked instructions, scaffolding, and collaborative learning improve learning conditions across the board. This article explains what each STEP looks like, how to adjust without rewriting lessons, and how to use Ignited resources in Literacy, Math, Science, and Social Studies effectively with ELL students. The focus remains on what matters most: a classroom community where every learner feels safe, included, and capable of success.

Understanding the STEP Framework

Ontario’s STEP (Steps to English Proficiency) framework describes six stages of English language development. These steps help teachers set realistic goals, monitor progress, and choose appropriate supports. Knowing what to expect at each stage helps you make sound choices about how to adapt instruction.

Step 1 — Beginning

Students are brand new to English. They understand little beyond survival language and rely on gestures, visuals, and modelling. The goal is oral language, routines, and everyday vocabulary.

Step 2 — Emerging

Students use short phrases, broken English, and gestures. They grasp the gist of lessons but miss details. They can respond to big ideas yet struggle with explanations and abstract tasks.

Step 3 — Developing

Students use English with more independence but still have gaps. They may understand about half of what happens and write in simple sentences or short paragraphs using common vocabulary. They need scaffolding, especially with subject-specific terms.

Step 4 — Expanding

Students can handle grade-level work with accommodations. Oral and written communication is strong, but syntax, grammar, idioms, and complex vocabulary still require support.

Step 5 — Bridging

Students work at grade level with minor gaps. They may occasionally struggle with idiomatic language or nuanced meaning but participate fully in all subjects.

Step 6 — Proficient

Students demonstrate proficiency close to English-speaking peers. Support is minimal and focused on refining complex academic language.

Each stage represents growth, not deficiency. ELLs are developing a new language while engaging with content. Your role is not to “catch them up” instantly, but to provide accessible entry points at every step.

Practical Strategies by STEP

Step 1 — Beginning

At Step 1, think first about belonging and spoken language. Your aim is not to move through the full curriculum, but to help a student feel safe, know the routines, and begin to understand everyday classroom talk. Seat the student with kind, talkative peers so they hear rich language all day. During whole-class read-alouds, invite them to enjoy the story with everyone else; afterward, hand them the same picture book and ask them to label familiar objects in both their first language (L1) and English (L2). Keep independent reading simple and visual; highly decodable books with picture support—such as those on Unite for Literacy—work well. In writing, let drawing lead, then layer in a short frame so the student can produce repeatable patterned sentences in the simple present, for example, “I see a bird.” Speak in clear, short sentences, avoid idioms and passive voice, and accept that understanding may be partial at first. Immersion in a language-rich classroom is the curriculum at this stage.

Step 2 — Emerging

Step 2 students catch more of what is happening and can share ideas with short phrases, gestures, and imperfect grammar. Keep the focus on big ideas rather than fine detail. When discussing a story, ask who the main character is or what the problem is, and accept brief, direct answers. Offer sentence starters so the student can move beyond patterned lines when ready. Use simple organisers to collect ideas without requiring a full paragraph yet. When a concept is new, pair English input with accessible media: short videos in L1 where possible, or in plain English with the playback slowed. Continue to allow L1 for note-making and planning. The goal is steady participation in the same learning as the class, with the language demands right-sized to the student’s current step.

Step 3 — Developing

Step 3 learners can do more in English with independence, but they still benefit from deliberate structure. Start by checking for understanding often and restating directions in smaller steps. Make your thinking visible: model, speak, and show. Replace long, text-heavy explanations with demonstrations and short cycles of “watch, try, show.” When a task asks the whole class to draft a full piece of writing from a plan, invite the Step 3 student to submit the completed organiser as their product. This preserves the logical structure and the core thinking while reducing the language load. In vocabulary-dense subjects such as Science and Social Studies, front-load the words before the lesson using clear images and quick oral rehearsal. Choose experiences that are physical and inquiry-based. If you are teaching how the heart works, build a simple model, let students act out the flow of blood through the chambers, and close with a labelled diagram. If you are introducing the fur trade, have the class watch a concise video, then ask the Step 3 student to tell or record five facts they learned. The emphasis is on meaningful participation in grade-level ideas, with the depth and volume adjusted so success is attainable.

Step 4 — Expanding

By Step 4, students are ready to tackle grade-level learning with targeted accommodations. Plan for a little more time so they can edit for tense, word order, and agreement without feeling rushed. Preview key vocabulary and any figurative language before a new text or unit; a few minutes of explicit unpacking prevents later confusion. During discussion and writing, prompt for clarity rather than perfection, and offer quick oral rephrases of tricky idioms as they arise. The student should move with the class, with you smoothing the linguistic bumps that can interrupt comprehension.

Steps 5 and 6 — Bridging and Proficient

At Steps 5 and 6, students work at grade level and participate fully across subjects. Support shifts toward refinement. Encourage precise academic vocabulary, nuanced transitions, and varied sentence structures. When meaning is subtle or culturally specific, pause to clarify and then move on. Offer extension tasks that stretch thinking rather than extra language drills. The student’s identity is that of a full participant; any scaffolds are light, brief, and respectful.

Subject-Specific Applications with Ignited Resources

Ignited Literacy

Literacy instruction often relies on text and discussion. You can modify these experiences without changing the core resource.

During read-alouds, ask ELLs to label characters, settings, or objects.
Provide simple organisers for story elements (character, setting, problem, solution).
Replace extended responses with a list of five events from the story.
Use picture prompts for daily creative writing. A helpful source is the New York Times’ What’s Going On in This Picture? Adjust sentence complexity to the student’s STEP.
During spelling or grammar lessons, remember that Step 1–2 students are highly modified. If they absorb a small portion, that is acceptable. Community, safety, and exposure come first.

Ignited Math

Math is often the most accessible subject because numbers are universal, yet language demands can be reduced further.

Focus on knowledge and understanding tasks rather than complex word problems for Step 1–2.
Avoid multi-step, language-heavy questions where possible.
Model frequently; point and show rather than only explain verbally.
Use a repeated structure: I do, we do, you do.
Allow multiple strategies for solving problems without requiring lengthy English explanations.

Ignited Science and Social Studies

These subjects are rich in vocabulary and concepts. Make them accessible through visuals and interaction.

Begin with images, photos, or artefacts to ground understanding.
Use sorting activities before explanations, for example, renewable vs. non-renewable energy.
Emphasise big ideas: biodiversity can begin with animals and where they live.
Replace heavy reading/writing tasks with matching, sorting, and labelling.
Choose one or two goals per unit for ELL students and measure success by grasp of the gist rather than exhaustive detail.

Resist isolating ELLs on separate programs. Even with partial comprehension, full-class, language-rich lessons are more valuable than working alone on simplified apps.

Linking Classroom Practice to Ontario Guidance

The Ministry’s Supporting ELL guide recommends scaffolding, visuals, and explicit support to make language and content accessible. The STEP User Guide emphasises monitoring and adjusting instruction according to a student’s current stage. The practices described above reflect these recommendations in daily classroom routines. Scaffolding is good teaching. Visuals help all learners. Group learning provides peer language models and natural opportunities for supported interaction.

Select lessons with multiple entry points. Reduce reliance on text-only resources and passive listening. When reading is part of the lesson, read together so peers can support. Explain to the class why and how to help ELL classmates. Build a community that values inclusion and understands that language learning takes time and exposure.

Mindset Shift for Teachers

The most important change is mindset. Supporting ELLs is not lowering expectations or watering down content. It is providing varied pathways to understanding and expression.

ELL students want to belong. They do not want separate tasks that make them feel different. Giving older ELLs work written for much younger students sends the message that they are not capable. Many ELLs bring strong knowledge in L1 that they cannot yet express in English. Assume capacity for critical thought and give chances to show understanding.

Offer many ways to demonstrate learning: drawing, pointing, sorting, labelling, building models. Invite peers to translate or clarify when appropriate. Remember that inability to express an idea in English does not mean a lack of understanding. Access comes before output. Confidence follows access.

Scaffolding, visuals, and inquiry are universal design strategies. They improve the learning environment for all students while opening doors for ELLs.

Call to Action

Teachers often make ELL support harder than it needs to be. Choosing text-heavy materials or expecting detailed curriculum mastery from Step 1 students creates unnecessary stress. ELL students are learning English and learning content. They are not ready for everything at once. Your instruction — its depth and complexity — should reflect the student’s STEP.

Consider these immediate shifts:

Make the next lesson less text-reliant by adding a visual or hands-on element.
Pre-teach five essential vocabulary words with images before starting a unit.
Replace one writing task with a structured organiser or labelled diagram.
Offer a sentence frame that matches the STEP, for example, “I see …” or “The problem is …”.
Provide two ways to show understanding, such as a diagram or a short oral summary with prompts.

Your ELL students do not need perfection. They need to be welcomed, included, and immersed in the language of your classroom community. Small adjustments will open big doors — and improve learning for everyone.

References
Ontario Ministry of Education, Supporting English Language Learners: A Practical Guide for Ontario Educators — PDF
Ontario STEP (Steps to English Proficiency) User Guide — PDF