Random group maker
Split your class into balanced groups or teams in one click, keep certain students apart or together, give each person a role, and print the result.
How to use it
- Paste your class list. Choose groups of a size you want, or a number of groups.
- Add any “keep apart” or “keep together” pairs, one per line, and roles if you want them.
- Press Make groups. Not happy? Press it again for a new set, or tick “Avoid putting people together again” so the same pairs do not repeat.
Ideas for class
- Make quick random groups for a warm-up, then press again after a few minutes to mix them up for the next task.
- Keep apart two students who work better away from each other, without anyone knowing it was on purpose, because the result looks random.
- Use roles for lab work or group projects: reader, recorder, materials manager, timekeeper and reporter, handed out fresh each time.
- Over a unit, turn on “avoid putting people together again” so students work with most of the class instead of the same few.
- Print the groups and tape them to the door, or project them as the class walks in so nobody has to ask where to sit.
- Make two teams for a review game, then three groups of different sizes for a jigsaw activity, with the same list.
Related
Questions
How does it deal with a class that does not divide evenly?
Groups are balanced: no group is ever more than one person larger than another. Ten students in groups of four make groups of 4, 3 and 3, not 4, 4 and 2, and never a group of one left over.
Are keep-apart rules always followed?
Whenever it is possible, yes. Some combinations cannot work, like three students who must all be apart when you only want two groups. Then the tool places everyone as well as it can and tells you which rule it had to break.
How does it remember who has been together?
The last five rounds are saved in this browser only. When “Avoid putting people together again” is on, it tries to keep any two students who were in a group together from landing in one again. It is a preference, so with small classes and many rounds some repeats cannot be avoided.
Is this tool fair?
Groups are made with your browser's secure random generator and then adjusted only to meet your rules. Without rules, every way of dividing the class is as likely as any other.
Do student names leave my computer?
No. Names and settings stay in this browser. A share link keeps them after the # sign, which browsers never send to any server, so only people you give the link to can read them. Be careful with who you share it with.
What is a good group size?
Pairs for talking through a problem, threes and fours for projects. Beyond five, some students tend to sit out. For roles, a group of four or five covers the usual set.
Nothing you do here is sent to us. Names, lists and settings stay in this browser. No sign-in, no ads.