Couch Scholar
Professional Learning Experience

Beyond the Label

The Breakfast Club: Supporting Students.

You'll learn to look past a label to what's really going on, show students they matter in specific ways, hold high standards without becoming an opponent, build on the strengths students bring, and know where your role ends and other support begins. You'll leave with a plan for seeing one student differently, or a clearer insight into the labels you reach for.

The Breakfast Club

What do the labels we give students hide, and how do you see the person behind them while still holding them to high standards?

You'll be able to:

  • Look past a label or a behavior, and learn how the student understands their own experience, without assuming or diagnosing.
  • Take specific, small actions that show a student they've been noticed and belong.
  • Keep expectations high and hold students accountable while making clear you believe they can meet them.
  • Recognize and build on the strengths, knowledge and networks students already have.
  • Show care, connect students to the right support, and recognize the limits of your role.

You'll leave with: A plan for seeing one student differently, or a clearer insight into the labels you reach for.

No need to have seen it first.

Begin the experience

You don't need to have seen the film. Choose "I haven't watched" to work from the premise and two short stories.

The Breakfast Club

Choose whether to discuss the film or work from the premise and two short stories.

I haven't watched

The premise and two short stories.

You don't need to have seen the film. We'll work from the premise, two short stories from it, and hypotheticals clearly labeled as such.

Begin with I haven't watched

I've watched

All five approved moments are open.

We'll discuss approved moments from the film without quoting it.

Begin with I've watched

You can change stories while you are still in Observe. After that, your chosen story stays with you for the rest of the experience.

The question at the center

What do the labels we give students hide, and how do you see the person behind them while still holding them to high standards?

Why it matters

On a Saturday in March 1984, five students at Shermer High School in Illinois serve a full day of detention in the school library. They seem to have nothing in common: a brain, an athlete, a loner, a popular girl and a rebel. The assistant principal in charge, Richard Vernon, orders them to sit silently and write an essay about who they think they are. Over the day, the labels start to fall away. We treat the film as a case study in seeing students clearly, and you don't need to have seen it.

The Learning Everywhere Framework™

Observe → Connect → Analyze → Apply → Reflect

  1. 1

    Observe: Five Labels

  2. 2

    Connect: The Students in Front of You

  3. 3

    Analyze: What Labels Hide

  4. 4

    Apply: My Second Look or My Insight

  5. 5

    Reflect: More Than One Label

Potato, the Couch Scholar AI learning coach

Potato™, your learning coach

Potato is warm, funny and curious, and takes both care and accountability seriously.

What you'll walk away with

  • Look past a label or a behavior, and learn how the student understands their own experience, without assuming or diagnosing.
  • Take specific, small actions that show a student they've been noticed and belong.
  • Keep expectations high and hold students accountable while making clear you believe they can meet them.
  • Recognize and build on the strengths, knowledge and networks students already have.
  • Show care, connect students to the right support, and recognize the limits of your role.
Begin the experience