If you are a primary or secondary teacher who integrate students with migrant or refugee background in your class you can use pictures for the instructions that you often repeat in class, such as “open your book” and “write in your notebook”.
For best results, it is recommended to have them printed in the classrooms and used by all teachers with exactly the same phrases. So they are often repeated and children learn them from the first days.
In the empty space, each child is encouraged to write the instruction in his native language in addition to the school language.
The teacher always enhances understanding with additional contextual support (gestures, facial expressions, body language).
