This article covers core grouping actions in Grouper:

This article covers core grouping operations only. For Do Not Group With, attributes, imports, and data-driven grouping, see the Making groups with student data support article.

For share and export actions (PDF, Canva, image, text), see the Share and export groupings support article.

Helpful links:

The Groups view is the best place to form groups because you can see a visual layout of your groups, as well as use drag-and-drop to customize groups. To access the Groups view, click the Groups tab at the top of the screen.

The right-hand control panel has three tabs: Actions, Saved, and New. Select the Actions tab to access grouping controls, such as formation, group size, shuffle, rotate, and attribute selection.

At the top of the Actions tab is the Formation dropdown: Students per group, Number of groups, or Attribute only. The formation you select determines which controls appear below it. To use student attributes in any of those formations, see the Making groups with student data support article.

Use this when you want each group to have a target size (for example, 4 students per group):

1. Open a class and select the Groups view.

2. In the Actions tab in the right-hand control panel, open the Formation dropdown and select Students per group.

3. Select the number of students you want per group, or enter that number into the text field.

4. Grouper creates groups automatically.

Important:

Use this when you know how many groups you want overall. For example, you have 6 tables in a class and you want 6 groups:

1. Open a class and select the Groups view.

2. In the Actions tab in the right-hand control panel, open the Formation dropdown and select Number of groups.

3. Select the number of groups you want, or enter that number into the text field.

4. Grouper creates groups automatically.

Use this when you want purely homogeneous groups — one group per attribute value, containing every student who shares that value. Group sizes are determined by the data, not a target number.

1. Open a class and select the Groups view.

2. In the Actions tab in the right-hand control panel, open the Formation dropdown and select Attribute only.

3. Select the attribute you want to group by and click the Cluster icon next to it (the Spread icon is not available in this formation). Grouper creates one group per attribute value automatically.

For full details on using attributes, see the Making groups with student data support article.

Use drag and drop to customize groups:

1. Click and hold a student avatar.

2. Drag to a different group and drop.

3. Repeat until the arrangement matches your plan.

Create a new group using drag and drop:

1. If students are already in groups, drag and drop the target students to the bottom of the screen below the groups.

2. Drag one student on top of an ungrouped student to form a group with those students.

3. Repeat until the arrangement matches your plan.

Tip:

Use Shuffle to re-randomize group membership:

1. Click Shuffle.

2. Repeat until satisfied with the result.

Use Rotate when you want groups to cycle to the next position or station:

1. Start from an existing grouping.

2. Click Rotate.

Important:

Attendance status affects who is included in a grouping. Absent students are not included in groups formed with automated grouping tools like Shuffle, Students per group, Number of groups, and Attributes:

1. Mark students absent before creating or shuffling groups.

2. Create or update groups.

3. Mark students present again when they return.

Important:

Use locking when you want to keep one or more groups unchanged while you use automated grouping tools for other groups:

1. Click the lock icon in the top-right corner of a group in the Groups view.

2. Continue using Shuffle, Rotate, Students per group, Number of groups, or other automated grouping tools and the locked group will remain unchanged.

Important:

There are two naming layers:

1. Click on a group name field.

2. Enter custom names. AI may autosuggest names for the other groups.

Note:

1. After finalizing groups, add a title above the grouping.

2. Use a title that helps retrieval later (for example: "Period 2 Lab Groups").

Important:

Click the + New button in the right-hand control panel to ungroup all of your students and start from scratch. The previous grouping will be saved when you click + New.

For sharing and export details, see the Share and export groupings support article.

Quick guidance:

1. Open a class and create at least one group.

2. Click Share in the top toolbar (or the three-dot menu on smaller screens).

3. Choose PDF, Canva, image copy, or text copy.

Groupings can be reused from the Saved area:

1. Create and finalize a grouping.

2. Give a clear grouping title

3. Open the Saved tab in the right-hand control panel to retrieve prior groupings.

4. Hover over the saved grouping name to preview the grouping

5. Click the saved grouping name to reuse the grouping.

Note

Plan note:

Use Undo when a recent change (for example Shuffle, Rotate, or drag and drop) is not what you wanted:

1. Click Undo to step back one change.

2. Click Undo again to continue stepping back through recent changes.

3. If needed, click Redo to re-apply a change you just undid.

Important:

With Students per group, one or more groups may have one extra student if class size does not divide evenly. To achieve your goal, try using Number of groups instead. For example, if you have 26 students and want groups with a maximum of 4 students, open the Formation dropdown, select Number of groups, then choose 7 — which will form 5 groups of 4 students and 2 groups of 3 students.

Check if the student is marked absent. Mark present if needed, then regroup.

Click Undo to return to the previous grouping state. If the change was earlier in the session, open the Saved tab and restore an earlier grouping.

Check whether those groups are locked. Unlock them, then Shuffle again if you want all groups to re-randomize.

These are now options in the formation dropdown at the top of the Actions tab. Select Students per group (formerly "Groups of") or Number of groups from the dropdown, and the familiar controls will appear below it. A third option, Attribute only, is also available — see the Making groups with student data support article for details.

Grouper is very popular among Building Thinking Classrooms™ teachers. In the Groups view, open the formation dropdown and select Students per group, then choose 3 to create random groups of 3. Click Go Live to present groups to the class. When you're ready to change your groups, click Shuffle. You can also use Do not group with to create "smart-randomized" groups that keep certain pairs of students apart (see the Preset attributes support article to learn more). And use the Picker tool to randomly select a group or one student from each group to present their work (see the Live mode support article to learn more).