Do your students work in small groups? As a classroom teacher, I knew how important it was for students to work in groups throughout the school day. However, it was always a challenge to group students quickly and place them in the “perfect” groups. There are so many factors to consider, from who gets along with who to what students are working on the same level.
Some days, I led a math lesson and wanted heterogeneous groups where students performed at different levels. On other days, I set up literacy stations with homogenous groups where students had the same instructional reading level. Whether you are using attributes like test scores, language proficiency, or how outgoing a student is, there is a fantastic tool called Grouper you will certainly want to explore.
Today on the blog, I have a brand new EdTech tool to share with you that helps you group students quickly and strategically this school year. It’s called Grouper and it’s free for teachers. Let’s dive in!
Group Students Strategically
Incorporating small group instruction into the classroom is a powerful strategy for engaging students and personalizing learning. Small groups allow educators to tailor instruction to meet the diverse needs of their students. By setting up students in small groups, teachers create opportunities for deeper learning, increased participation, and more meaningful interactions.
Although I gave a math and literacy example earlier in the blog post, this can happen in any subject area and any grade level. For instance, in a science classroom, students might work in small groups to conduct experiments, analyze data, and discuss results. In social studies, small groups of students might collaborate on research projects or debate different perspectives on an issue.
Ways to Group Students
There are different ways to structure small groups to maximize learning. Homogeneous groups, where you group students by similar instructional reading levels, test scores, skill sets, or other similarities, are helpful for targeted interventions and skill reinforcement. For instance, in a math class, students working on multiplication strategies might be grouped together for focused practice.
Heterogeneous groups mix students with varying levels of language proficiency, learning styles, social skills, or other factors. These groups encourage peer teaching, collaboration, and different perspectives. For example, a group may include students with various strengths in a social studies discussion. You might form a small group with some students who excel in verbal expression and others who bring strong research skills. In a moment, we’ll dive into Grouper, and you’ll see all of the options you have for student groupings.
How to Group Students Quickly
Whether using homogeneous or heterogeneous groups, it can take time to find the perfect spot for each student, especially if you are grouping students differently over the course of the school day (like in an elementary classroom) or during a school week or unit of study (like a secondary classroom).
So, how can you group students quickly but with intention? This is where Grouper comes into play.
Grouper lets teachers set up an account using their email, Google, or Clever. They can either sync their existing rosters (a huge time saver) or set up classes from scratch. As you can see in the screenshot, you can add many attributes to each student. This feature will come in handy as you are making groups and want to consider a few different attributes.
For example, if you indicate that a student is a “strong leader,” you can later decide that you want one or two strong leaders in a group, and Grouper will spread these students out. You can also indicate a student’s primary language, Lexile level, and more. These options are helpful for both heterogeneous and homogeneous groupings.
Grouping for Classroom Management
As you might have noticed in the screenshot above, you can also indicate if a student should not work in a group with another student. Although you can override this any time, it’s a great feature that makes creating small groups that are “just right” in your classroom much quicker. The video below shows how quickly you can group students based on a variety of attributes.
Differentiating Instruction with Data
If differentiation is a priority for you and your colleagues this year, Grouper makes it super easy to be strategic about groupings. With differentiation in mind, another attribute that can come in handy is the different student proficiency levels. You can upload data (more on that in a moment) and use that data to create groups quickly.
Leverage AI Behind the Scenes
Grouper uses AI behind the scenes to power some of its core features. One of the most impressive use cases is the ability to take information you give it and use that to update your class attributes. How does this work? You can take a screenshot or picture of student data, such as a selection of a spreadsheet, and it will use what it sees on the screen (student names and scores) and add it as an attribute in Grouper.
I’ve seen this in action, and it is wild! I was super surprised at how effortlessly this worked and how teachers could quickly skim and double check to make sure the AI got everything right. If you’ve followed my work for the past few years, you know that I am all about finding ways that AI can help us save time, and this has to be one of my favorite examples!
Getting Started with Grouper
It’s easy to get started with Grouper! You can join for free using this signup link. As I mentioned earlier, Grouper has easy integrations with Google Classroom and Clever. So you can take advantage of single sign-on and quick roster syncs once you sign up.
Working in a smaller setting lets students feel more comfortable asking questions, sharing ideas, and engaging with their peers. Students can learn from one another, practice social-emotional skills, and develop interpersonal skills they can bring into moments inside and outside the classroom.
Use this link to learn more about Grouper and set up your first class today!
Find more posts featuring personalized learning tips:
- 9 Classroom Management Tips for Blended Learning
- Tech-Savvy Approaches for a Differentiated Classroom with Dr. Clare Kilbane and Dr. Natalie Milman – Easy EdTech Podcast 296
- 5 Ways to Use AI to Customize Activities for Students
- Classroom Management in a Blended Learning Environment – Easy EdTech Podcast 254
