With the current focus in mathematics education on the importance of developing students' conceptual understanding, fluency with the language of mathematics, critical thinking, and working mathematically, teachers are constantly expected to design challenging and investigative tasks that can engage and motivate students in their learning of mathematics. An integral part of creating exemplary and conducive learning environments in mathematics classrooms is for teachers to be innovative and creative in the ways they teach and assess students. In this paper the author describes concept maps and vee-diagrams and illustrates how these two meta-cognitive tools can be used as viable means of assessing students' conceptual understanding, fluency with the language of mathematics, and critical thinking in problem solving across many disciplinary areas. (Contains 6 figures and 2 tables.)