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Grouping basics

Grouping basics overview

This article covers core grouping actions in Grouper:

  • Form groups by students per group.

  • Form groups by number of groups.

  • Move students with drag and drop.

  • Create a new group by drag and drop.

  • 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.

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.

  • Attributes — apply attributes to shape group membership. 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):

  1. Open a class and select the Grouping view.

  2. In the Formation section of 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:

  • If class size does not divide evenly, one or more groups may have one extra student.

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:

  1. Open a class and select the Grouping view.

  2. In the Formation section of 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.

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.

  1. Open a class and select the Grouping view.

  2. In the Formation section of the right-hand control panel, open the formation dropdown and select Attribute only.

  3. 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:

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

  2. Repeat until the arrangement matches your plan.

Note:

  • If students are already in groups, drag and drop the target students to the bottom of the screen below the groups, then follow the instructions above.

Tip:

  • Try auto-grouping first, then using drag and drop for final balancing.

Shuffle, Rotate, and Clear

Shuffle

Use Shuffle to re-randomize group membership:

  1. Click Shuffle in the Grouping section of the right-hand control panel.

  2. Repeat until satisfied with the result.

Rotate

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

  1. Start from an existing grouping.

  2. 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:

  1. Mark students absent or present by clicking on the student and selecting Mark absent or Mark present.

  2. Create or update groups.

  3. Mark students present again when they return.

To quickly mark a student absent and move them out of all groups, select Mark absent and remove.

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:

  1. Click the lock icon in the top-right corner of a group in the Grouping 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:

  • Students can be added to or removed from locked groups using drag and drop.

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.

  1. Click the grouping name above your groups.

  2. 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

  1. Click on a group name field.

  2. 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

  1. Open the dropdown at the top of the Grouping section in the right-hand control panel.

  2. Hover over a saved grouping to preview it on screen.

  3. 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:

  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:

  • Undo is best for immediate corrections right after a change.

  • 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."

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.

"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.

"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.

"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).

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