Grouping basics overview
This article covers core grouping actions in Grouper:
Form groups by students per group.
Form groups by number of groups.
Set a minimum or maximum group size.
Move students with drag and drop.
Select several students and move or edit them together.
Create a new group by drag and drop.
Use the student toolbar for quick actions.
Shuffle and rotate groups.
Mark students absent and present.
Name your groups and your grouping.
Save, open, and manage groupings.
This article covers core grouping operations only. For Do not group with, attributes, imports, and data-driven grouping, see the Making groupings and seatings with student data support article.
For share and export actions (PDF, Canva, image, text), see the Share and export groupings and seatings support article.
For working the Grouping view without a mouse, see the Keyboard navigation and shortcuts support article.
Helpful links:
The Grouping view
The Grouping 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 open Grouping view, use the View as control near the top of the class page and select Grouping.
Note:
On mobile devices, click the view changer button in the center of the top toolbar and select Grouping.
The grouping control panel
The right-hand control panel in Grouping view has four sections:
Grouping — create, open and manage saved groupings, plus the Shuffle, Rotate, and Clear buttons.
Formation — choose how groups are formed: Students per group, Number of groups, or Attribute only. In Students per group, the Min and Max buttons below the size decide how leftover students are handled.
Attributes — apply attributes to shape group membership, and click an attribute's name to open its properties and edit student values. See the Making groupings and seatings with student data support article.
Settings — toggle Show group names on or off.
The formation you select determines which controls appear below it.
Note:
On mobile, open the grouping controls by clicking the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of the screen and selecting Show grouping controls. Close the panel by clicking the x in the top-right corner of the panel.
Formation: Students per group
Use this when you want each group to have a target size (for example, 4 students per group):
Open a class and select the Grouping view.
In the Formation section of the right-hand control panel, open the formation dropdown and select Students per group.
Select the number of students you want per group, or enter that number into the text field.
Click Min or Max below the size to choose how leftover students are handled.
Grouper creates groups automatically.
Min and Max
Class sizes rarely divide evenly by the size you pick, so Min and Max decide what happens to the students left over. The two buttons sit below the group size, and they appear in the Students per group formation only — with Number of groups the count is fixed, and Attribute only ignores group size entirely.
Min treats your number as a minimum: no group is smaller than the size you picked, and the leftover students are spread across the other groups, so some groups end up larger. Min is the starting choice.
Max treats your number as a maximum: no group is larger than the size you picked, and the leftover students form one more, smaller group.
For example, with 26 students and a size of 4:
Min forms 6 groups — four groups of 4 and two groups of 5.
Max forms 7 groups — five groups of 4 and two groups of 3.
Notes:
Hover over either button to see the size it applies to, such as "At least 4 per group" or "At most 4 per group".
Absent students are not counted, so marking a student absent can change the number of groups.
Grouper remembers your choice and uses it for the next grouping you create. Groupings you already saved keep the setting they were formed with.
Formation: Number of groups
Use this when you know how many groups you want overall. For example, you have 5 stations in a class and you want 5 groups:
Open a class and select the Grouping view.
In the Formation section of the right-hand control panel, open the formation dropdown and select Number of groups.
Select the number of groups you want, or enter that number into the text field.
Grouper creates groups automatically.
Formation: Attribute only
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. For example, you want to group students based on math or ELA proficiency, with all of the students at each proficiency level grouped together so you can provide targeted instruction.
This formation suits attributes with a handful of values. Because it creates one group per distinct value, an attribute with many values — a Lexile level, a percentile, a test score — produces a group for every value, often a dozen or more with one or two students each. To group similar students by an attribute like that, select Students per group or Number of groups and click Cluster: similar students still end up together, and you set the group size.
Attribute only ignores Do not group with and Study buddies: every student with the same value lands in the same group.
Open a class and select the Grouping view.
In the Formation section of the right-hand control panel, open the formation dropdown and select Attribute only.
Find the attribute you want to group by and click the Cluster button next to it (the circular button with arrows pointing toward each other). Grouper creates one group per attribute value automatically.
For full details on using attributes, see the Making groupings and seatings with student data support article.
Drag and drop: move students
Use drag and drop to customize groups:
Click and hold a student.
Drag to a different group and drop.
Repeat until the arrangement matches your plan.
Tip:
Try auto-grouping first, then using drag and drop for final balancing.
Notes:
On a touchscreen, press and hold a student for a moment before dragging. A quicker swipe scrolls the screen instead.
Dragging to the top or bottom edge of the screen scrolls your groups, so you can drop onto a group that is off screen.
Manually create a new group
There are two ways to make a new group by dragging:
Drop one or more students onto the empty dashed card at the end of your groups. It is always there, and it reads New group while you are dragging.
Drop a student on top of an ungrouped student to form a group from those two.
Reorder students within a group
Drag a student within their own group and drop them between two other students. This changes the order they appear in, without moving them out of the group.
Remove students from groups
Drag students to the open area below your groups. That area is where ungrouped students sit, and dropping a student there takes them out of every group. It highlights while you are dragging.
The student toolbar
Hover over or click a student to open a quick-action toolbar above them. Toolbar actions include:
Mark absent / Mark present — toggle the student's attendance status.
Do not group with — set or remove do not group with pairings for the student. See the Preset attributes support article.
Three-dot menu — more actions, including Edit student and Mark absent and remove.
Selecting multiple students
Click and drag on an empty area of the screen to draw a selection box around several students.
Command+click (Mac) or Control+click (Windows) to add students to the selection one at a time.
Shift+click extends the selection from the student you last clicked.
Click an empty area to clear the selection.
Tips:
Start the drag on an empty spot. A drag that starts on a student moves that student instead of drawing a selection box.
A selection box reaches ungrouped students in the area below your groups, so you can pick up a set of them in one drag.
Note:
Selection boxes are not available on touchscreens.
When more than one student is selected, the toolbar shows bulk actions, including:
Mark all absent / Mark all present
Do not group with each other — sets do not group with pairings between all selected students.
Three-dot menu — more actions, including Mark absent and remove.
Moving multiple students
Drag any student in the selection and the whole selection moves together. Drop them onto a group, onto the New group card, or in the area below your groups.
You can also set an attribute value for everyone in the selection at once — see the Making groupings and seatings with student data support article.
Shuffle, Rotate, and Clear
Shuffle
Use Shuffle to re-randomize group membership:
Click Shuffle in the Grouping section of the right-hand control panel.
Repeat until satisfied with the result.
Rotate
Use Rotate when you want groups to cycle to the next position or station:
Start from an existing grouping.
Click Rotate.
Important:
Students will be moved to the next group location on the screen, but the group names will remain in their original location.
Clear
Use Clear to ungroup all of your students so you can rearrange the current grouping from scratch.
Important:
Clear empties the grouping you have open — it does not create a new saved grouping. To start a separate new grouping and keep the current one, use the + button instead (see Saving and managing groupings below).
Marking students absent and present
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:
Click a student, then click Mark absent or Mark present in the toolbar above them.
Create or update groups.
Mark students present again when they return.
To change several students at once, select them first and use Mark all absent or Mark all present — see Selecting multiple students above.
To quickly mark a student absent and move them out of all groups, select Mark absent and remove from the toolbar's three-dot menu.
Important:
Students' attendance status is automatically reset to Present after 18 hours of inactivity.
Marking a student absent will not automatically remove the student from the group until you use one of the auto-grouping tools or manually remove the student.
Locking groups
Use locking when you want to keep one or more groups unchanged while you use automated grouping tools for other groups:
Click the lock icon in the top-right corner of a group in the Grouping view.
Continue using Shuffle, Rotate, Students per group, Number of groups, or other automated grouping tools and the locked group will remain unchanged.
Important:
Students can be added to or removed from locked groups using drag and drop.
Locked groups show a striped background — the same treatment as locked seats in the Seating view.
Naming groups and groupings
There are two naming layers:
The grouping name: the name of the whole grouping — the same name that identifies it in the saved groupings dropdown. It is viewable and editable directly above your groups.
Group names: labels for each individual group.
Naming a grouping
The name shown above your groups is the saved grouping's name. When you first visit the Grouping view, or when you click + in the Grouping section of the control panel to create a new grouping, your grouping will be given a default name ("Untitled"), which you can then change.
Click the grouping name above your groups.
Type a name that will help you find the grouping later (for example: "Period 2 Lab Groups").
Notes:
You can also select Rename from the three-dot menu in the Grouping section of the control panel.
Important:
Custom grouping names will be visible to students in Live mode.
Default grouping names ("Untitled") will not be visible in Live mode.
Naming groups
Click on a group name field.
Enter custom names. AI may autosuggest names for the other groups.
Note:
Groups are given system-generated sea creature names by default.
When you add group names, the system may auto-generate names for the remaining groups.
The system will remember your custom group names and reuse them for subsequent groupings.
Once you add custom group names, sea creature names will no longer be used.
Group names can be turned off with the Show group names toggle in the Settings section of the right-hand control panel.
Saving and managing groupings
Your grouping is auto-saved as you work, so long as you are online. It is not necessary to name the grouping for it to be saved. Unnamed groupings are saved as "Untitled".
Create a new grouping
Click the + button in the Grouping section of the right-hand control panel to create a new grouping and start from scratch. The previous grouping stays saved.
Open a saved grouping
Open the dropdown at the top of the Grouping section in the right-hand control panel.
Hover over a saved grouping to preview it on screen.
Click the saved grouping to open it.
The dropdown shows the grouping that's currently open at the top, followed by your five most recently updated groupings. If you have more, click View all saved groupings at the bottom of the dropdown to open the Saved groupings panel, where you can search and sort all of your saved groupings.
Rename, duplicate, or delete a grouping
Click the three-dot menu in the Grouping section of the control panel for actions on the grouping that is currently open:
Rename — jumps to the grouping name above your groups so you can edit it.
Duplicate — creates a copy of the grouping and opens it.
History — see Grouping history below.
Delete — permanently deletes the saved grouping.
Plan note:
Free plan: limited to 1 saved grouping.
PRO plan: unlimited saved groupings, retained long-term.
Grouping history
Every saved grouping keeps a history of its changes. To view it, select History from the three-dot menu in the Grouping section of the control panel.
The history panel shows the history of the saved grouping that is currently open.
Hover over a history entry to preview it on screen.
Click the entry to restore the grouping to that point in time.
Plan note:
Free plan: history is available for the last 7 days.
PRO plan: full history is retained long-term.
Undo and redo
Use Undo when a recent change (for example Shuffle, Rotate, or drag and drop) is not what you wanted:
Click Undo to step back one change.
Click Undo again to continue stepping back through recent changes.
If needed, click Redo to re-apply a change you just undid.
Helpful keyboard shortcuts:
Undo — Command+Z (Mac) or Control+Z (Windows).
Redo — Command+Shift+Z (Mac) or Control+Shift+Z (Windows).
For a full list of shortcuts, see the Keyboard navigation and shortcuts support article.
Important:
Undo is best for immediate corrections right after a change.
The shortcuts do not apply while your cursor is in a text field, such as a group name.
For older versions of a grouping, use History to restore an earlier state.
Quick troubleshooting FAQ
"I want my groups to have a maximum size of X rather than a minimum size of X."
In the Students per group formation, set the size to X and click Max. No group will be larger than X, and the students left over form one more, smaller group. For example, 26 students with a size of 4 and Max selected form 5 groups of 4 students and 2 groups of 3 students. Min, the other setting, does the opposite: it absorbs a small leftover into the other groups, making some of them larger than X. See the Min and Max section above.
"A student is not appearing in groups"
Check if the student is marked absent. Mark present if needed, then regroup.
"I shuffled and lost a setup I liked"
Click Undo to return to the previous grouping state. If the change was earlier in the session, open History from the three-dot menu in the Grouping section and restore an earlier version.
"There is a red line between two students in a group"
Those two students have a Do not group with pairing and have ended up in the same group. It happens most often when you move students by hand, and also when you add a pairing to students who are already grouped, or when a class is too constrained for Grouper to separate everyone. Drag one of them to another group and the line clears. Students do not see it in Live mode. See the Preset attributes support article.
"I shuffled but some groups did not change"
Check whether those groups are locked. Unlock them, then Shuffle again if you want all groups to re-randomize.
"Can I prevent any two students from being in the same group more than once across all 4 groupings?"
No. Each Shuffle, Spread, or Cluster places students randomly, so a pair can land together again in a later grouping. Use Do not group with for pairs that must stay apart, or drag and drop to adjust a grouping by hand.
"Where did the 'Groups of' and 'Number of groups' buttons go?"
These are now options in the formation dropdown in the Formation section of the right-hand control panel. 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 groupings and seatings with student data support article for details.
"How do I use Grouper for Building Thinking Classrooms™?"
Grouper is very popular among Building Thinking Classrooms™ teachers. In the Grouping 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).
"The control panel, my students, or something else is missing from the screen"
Several things can hide part of the screen. Start with whichever of these matches what you are looking at:
You are in a view that does not have that control. Seating controls appear in the Seating view only, and grouping controls appear in the Grouping and List views. The Classes dashboard has no control panel at all. See the Class views support article.
You are in Live mode. Live mode has no right-hand control panel. It offers a smaller set of tools in a toolbar at the bottom of the screen. See the Live mode support article.
A takeover panel is open. Some controls — an attribute's properties, History, Add attribute, Edit layout — take over the whole control panel while they are open, so the standard controls are not visible. If there is a Back button at the top of the panel, click it to return to the grouping or seating controls.
Your students are hidden because you are in layout mode. In the Seating view, Edit layout switches the canvas to layout mode, where you add and remove seats and students are hidden. Click Back at the top of the control panel to return to placing students. Grouper keeps you in layout mode until the layout has a seat for every student — see the Seating basics support article.
Your students show values instead of avatars. An attribute's properties are open, so every student displays their value for that attribute and clicking a student sets it. Click Back at the top of the control panel to leave — see the Making groupings and seatings with student data support article.
The window is too narrow. Grouper switches to its mobile layout automatically on a narrow screen or window, and the control panel is closed by default. Click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner and select Show grouping controls, or Show controls in the Seating view. On a desktop or laptop, widening the window brings the panel back.
A browser extension is interfering. In rare cases an extension changes how Grouper looks or behaves. Turn your extensions off, or open Grouper in a private window or a different browser application, and check whether the problem goes away.