2. Use Anticipation Guides
Anticipation guides are quick ways to see before reading or learning what your students already know about a topic. They can also pique student interest around a topic.
Here's an anticipation guide on the topic of cyberbullying. If you were preparing to design a unit on this topic, you could let students delve into this first. While you gather materials and plan for the unit, the results from this anticipation guide would provide you with some useful data: what they already know about cyberbullying, gaps in their understanding of the topic, and any misconceptions they may have about cyberbullying and bullying in general. When I taught high school English, I always hoped that anticipation guides would reveal some of my students' "blind spots" (academic, social, and emotional) and help preempt those teachable moments.