The importance of Cluster method in teaching English

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Clustering: Generate Ideas That Connect to stories

Teachers may use this method to enhance students writing and inspire new creativity.

Clustering is a way to help writers develop a visual map of thoughts and feelings about specific topics, phrases or words. As writers, we can get caught up in our minds and stuck because we struggle to explore the central theme or location fully.

Often we visualize what we want our story to look like but don’t ever explore the other possibilities that could make our work more unique.

The cluster technique enables writers to pull apart and dissect their thoughts on a topic, often leading to more details, more personality and ultimately a more interesting take on the subject.

Clustering enables us to recognize all of the associations we might subconsciously have with the chosen word or word group and then allows us to chose which path we want to take in our story writing.

It’s basically the barebones of a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ book.

What is clustering?

Clustering was defined and developed by Gabriele Lusser Rico in her book Writing the Natural Way (1983) her goal in developing this style was to help link the brain and all it’s thought processes together by using images to connect ideas, and scramble linear thinking while still utilizing it as an asset.

This technique allows us to move backward and forwards through our thoughts and understandings without getting stuck and gives us a broader scope of inspiration to draw from.

How to cluster. The best way to explain a cluster is to show you what one looks like, for this to work I’m going to use one I wrote earlier. I used the word forest as the

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main topic as it is relevant to a story I am writing in my ‘playtime’.

Scenery can be used in an incredibly subtle way not only to give an atmosphere to a story but also to introduce feelings that your character might be experiencing within these places.

A character is unlikely to feel the same way in every possible setting. They will feel more at home, or on edge depending on where they physically are.

Setting a scene helps us to develop the emotional state of our characters.

Clustering becomes essential when trying to understand the scope of emotions that you personally experience when looking at a topic.

This particular method allows you to know where comfortable connections can be made in just a few steps, so you don’t end up pushing a specific idea, that doesn’t necessarily connect to what your story is actually saying.

Clusters are deeply personal because of the way our brain works in developing them. Jumps are not always apparent to everyone; you can see this clearly in the cluster that I made.

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