One easy way to give students more autonomy and responsibility for their learning is by having them self grade. You can have them compare to a model, evaluate their work according to a checklist or rubric, or compare new work to prior work to look for growth.
This is a way to model not just the end product but also the thinking process of a particular assignment. I like to give my students a similar problem to the one they will solve, walk them through and have them take notes, and then they have the model and the notes to use as resources when they go to do the same thing.
This can also be done as a group discussion. The teacher doesn't have to do all the thinking in a think-a-loud. The goal is to model the thinking process. You can do that by leading with questions and plugging student responses into the collaborative answer that you are making.
Think-a-louds are useful not only for showing how to do a new type of task, but also for looking at student work together. When you do a show call, instead of saying what's great about it, ask the students to give one glow (something well done) and one grow (something to improve).
Conferences are by far the most effective way to give feedback.
These are great for any sort of process writing or longer project. I usually have students sign up at the beginning of the project based on which part of the project they anticipate needing the most help on and then assign them a day.
Then, students work independently and I write the names of the conferences for that day on the board.
I call students up individually to my desk and ask them how they're doing and what they need help with. If they ask vague questions, like "can you give me feedback on my essay" I ask them to be more specific (for example, "is my thesis specific enough?" They leave with specific tasks to improve (or finish) their project and a solid understanding of what they are doing well.
Usually I limit these to 5 or 10 minutes.
They can be used at the end of the quarter to discuss one on one what a student's grade should be. In my class, this generally takes about two weeks because I am able to meet with about two students per class. However, in future I think I will have students fill out a reflection chart ahead of time so we can just go over it. I did this with one class this year, and it went pretty well.
Generally this works best if I have an anchor piece of work: a recent assessment or longer classroom assessment. I have a folder for each student where I keep other samples of their work from the quarter, which we use as evidence to ground our discussion. The conversation generally goes like this:
How are you doing in this class? What are you doing well? What are you struggling with? (talk about both academics and independent work habits. Later in the year, I will add, "how have you improved or grown / what have you learned since our last check in?)
How's your attendance? (If not good, I ask why and we try to problem solve around it.)
What's holding you back in this class, or what do you feel you need to work on improving?
Let's set that as a goal for next quarter. (make it specific) What do you need to do in order to accomplish that goal? What support do you need from me?
Based on the conversation we just had, what grade do you feel best represents your skill level right now? Why?
I take notes as we go, so we have a record for next quarter to compare and look for progress. We look at their work to verify our statements, and we collaboratively come to an agreement about what seems like a fair grade. I do not put a grade in the gradebook until we have come to an agreement.
Often times students will offer two grade suggestions, (ex: "a B or a C"), and together we narrow it down (I only ask questions until they make a choice and then offer my feedback on it). So I might say, okay based on your explanation it seems like you're between a B and a C. So do you feel closer to a B, like a B-, or closer to a C, like a C+? And then they explain.