Today, we learned how to use clustering as a brainstorming strategy before responding to any writing prompt. Think about today’s practice. How did clustering help you generate ideas, examples, etc for the prompt? What part of the clustering process was most useful to you, and do you think you would use this strategy when planning an AP Lang essay? Explain. (Sep. 25)

Clustering helped me organize my ideas in a way that I could understand better, since it was drawn out. Being able to visually see how my ideas connect without it just being a list helps me better comprehend what reasons I have at hand to support my claim, and what options I have to choose from if I feel stuck. I think using this strategy on the AP exam might be helpful, but I'm not sure if it would be the best since I would need a sheet of paper to draw this out on, and I might waste time thinking over potential ideas that I might not even end up using in my essay. Though, I do think it could be useful outside of school, too.

Summary: Today in class, we took notes on brainstorming and went in detail on a specific method called the Clustering Method.

Reflection: I hope that we will be able to learn more brainstorming methods in class soon. I would like to see what other options I have, even if I liked learning how to use the Clustering Method.

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