“Am I finished?” “Is this good enough?” “What else do I need to do?”

These questions drive teachers crazy because they reveal a fundamental problem: students have been trained to have feedback done to them, not with them. They’ve never been taught how to take charge of the feedback process, so they wait for you to tell them if they’re done.

The Dependency We’ve Created

We’ve trained students to be passive recipients of our judgment. They submit work and wait for verdicts. They ask permission to be finished. They have no ownership of the improvement process.

[Pull quote: “When students ask ‘Am I finished?’ they’re really saying ‘I don’t know what good looks like.’”]

When students ask “Am I finished?” they’re really saying “I don’t know what good looks like.”

But here’s what’s interesting: when students say they want feedback, research shows they actually mean something specific—concrete, actionable next steps. They want advice for improvement. The tragedy is they don’t know how to ask for it. “Is this good?” is their default—it’s automatic, the only question they know. They literally don’t have alternatives.

Teaching Students to Own Their Learning

What if students could tell you exactly what help they needed? What if they gradually learned to take responsibility for identifying their struggles?

This is a process—it doesn’t happen overnight. But we can guide students to slowly take charge of their feedback. One powerful strategy (one of many we explore systematically) is showing them what good advice requests look like.

Here’s a simple tool that starts the transformation: the T-chart:

[Pull quote: “Students who can articulate what they need are students who take responsibility for their learning.”]

Students who can articulate what they need are students who take responsibility for their learning.

The Shift in Responsibility

When you teach students to make specific advice requests:

• They must evaluate their own work first
• They identify their own struggles
• They take ownership of improvement
• They stop asking “Am I finished?”

A Year 9 teacher posted this T-chart on her wall and refused to answer vague questions. “Make it helpful,” she’d say, pointing to the chart. After a month, she noticed students starting to ask “Does my essay have enough evidence?” instead of “Is my essay good?” They were ready for the next step in taking ownership.

The Practical Revolution

[Pull quote: “Every time we answer ‘Am I finished?’ we steal an opportunity for students to develop judgment.”]

Every time we answer “Am I finished?” we steal an opportunity for students to develop judgment.

Here’s how to shift responsibility to students:

Step 1: Create Your T-Chart Make one for your subject. Display it prominently.

Step 2: Teach the Difference Model both types. Show why specific requests get better help.

Step 3: Require Specificity “I’ll help when you can tell me specifically what you need help with.”

Step 4: Celebrate Good Requests “That’s an excellent advice request because…”

The Bigger Shift

This isn’t just about better questions. It’s about developing learnership—students’ ability to drive their own improvement. When students can identify what they need, they:

• Stop waiting for permission to be finished
• Start seeing learning as ongoing
• Take ownership of their progress
• Actually use the advice they receive

[Pull quote: “Students asking ‘Am I finished?’ are dependent. Students asking ‘How can I strengthen this?’ are independent.”]

Students asking “Am I finished?” are dependent. Students asking “How can I strengthen this?” are independent.

Tomorrow’s Challenge

Create a T-chart for your subject. Post it. Then try this:

When a student asks “Am I finished?” respond with: “What do you think you still need to work on?” When they say “I don’t know,” point to the T-chart: “Turn that into a specific request for advice.”

Watch them struggle at first. Then watch them develop the skill that changes everything: the ability to identify what they need to improve.

Because students who own their learning process are students who never stop improving. And they never again ask, “Am I finished?”