Keeping students engaged and under control?

It's always a fine line we walk down as educators.  We want our students to be autonomous thinkers, working without the teacher prodding them along, but we are always trying to hover over their shoulders to see what they have done.  At the same time we are told to plan our units with the end in mind, but at the same time we have to grade very little thing that is done between the beginning and the end.  We are to differentiate our instruction to offer its access to every learner, but also are supposed to offer an equal education to every student.

Autonomy is something that I have been experimenting with quite a bit this year.  If you have heard of the book you can find his page: Daniel Pink.  His points are focused on business, but it is so easy to see how they can be applied to education, and how they have been by many.  However, management + autonomy can = a bad combination, so it has to be tried with a lot of trepidation and planning.

For more on his ideas, watch this:


However, here is the problem that I am facing: How do I allow my students autonomy without allowing them to face failure?  Teachers are constantly burdened with getting the kids to work up to grade level to making them more than they are, to do this, to do that, but where does it stop?  Currently in my classes we are finishing a persuasive paper and an accompanied video project.  The video project is directly tied to the topic of the papers, bullying.  The kids LOVE working on the videos, not so much the paper, but that's life.  When it is time to work on papers in class there is talking, but I do not constantly end the talking because I want my students to begin making choices.  One of them being: Do I take this provided time to work, or do I waste it so that I will either 1. have to do the work later, or 2. fail this class?

Just writing about this has brought up another thought in my mind: Should I be assigning specific time in class for either writing or video project work, or should I allow students to make those decisions?

My take - give the students a chance to be autonomous and have the opportunity to fail or succeed.  This will create a more meaningful experience for my students and a more authentic performance on their parts.