Ask this question on every test:

What do you know/understand about __________ now that you didn't know/understand before our unit of study? 

Last week I asked a variation of this question at the end of an assessment on my students' learning from our Journalism First-Amendment study. In a paragraph, explain how you understand an aspect of the first amendment better now than you did a week ago. Provide an example that shows your understanding. 

Here are first three responses, which were fairly representative: 

     A week ago, I'm going to be honest, I didn't know anything about the First Amendment. I have learned so much, and I just answered every single question correctly on this quiz. 
For one, I did not know that it was legal to burn a flag when in disagreeance with the government. I did not know that that was acceptable, but I do now.
     A week ago, I also didn't know that a principal of a school can't say that something can't be published, like for eye of the needle because it's protected by this Bill of Rights.
     I didn't know that teachers can actually teach about religions, they just can't lead a prayer in class. I did know this to some extent, but I didn't know all the rules that came along with Relgion in the First Amendment.
     I also didn't know that so many things were actually protected by the First Amendment, I knew that most things were, but not as many as I do now. I didn't know you could say so many hurtful things and still count that as sticking within the First Amendment. However, even though you can mean things or bad things, this doesn't meant that consequences won't follow.

I learned more about the idea of religion in a school. When I was in Washington as a little kid, we said the Pledge of Allegiance every day, so I thought it was just a part of our daily lives. Then we stopped saying it, and I never knew why. Eventually I thought that religion was banned in schools, but now I know that it isn't banned, but it just cannot be promoted by school officials. Students can still follow their beliefs, but school officials and staff cannot promote it.

I didn't know or realize why we couldn't as a class do the things we can't do. Like praying, Pledge of Allegiance, or how the teachers can'r wear clothes supporting their religion or hang it up in their classroom. I don't feel that that is promoting the religion. I feel it's showing everyone you're proud of your religion. I understand why we can't force students to say the Pledge of Allegiance. People in our school district are different religions. I just found out today of a sophomore girl who is a religion who doesn't celebrate things. That reminded me of journalism due to not being able to do say the Pledge of Allegiance. My question is though, what if all of the students wish to say a gorup prayer? Don't sports teams before games send a prayer together to pray for a win and for everyone to be safe?

I loved how the third student revealed some misunderstanding that I needed to address and also boldly asked questions about subtleties in separation of church and state. I learned more about my students' understanding--and processing of their learning--from this one question that I did from the 19 other questions on the assessment. 

The lesson? Don't forget to ask the students what they've learned.