How to Create Student Groups in Teacher Dashboard

Grouping students in your classroom is a great way to differentiate instruction. With Hapara Teacher Dashboard's Groups feature, you can create digital student groups and easily differentiate instruction online.

The Groups feature is highly customizable and gives you the flexibility organize students in the ways that best fit their needs and make the most sense to you.

Students can belong to multiple groups. In fact, you can create over 40 groups! Plus, groups can be the same across Teacher Dashboard and Highlights, or you can group students differently in each tab.

Why Creating Groups is Helpful for Instruction

Creating student groups in Teacher Dashboard helps you streamline instruction and provide more meaningful learning opportunities. There are two main reasons to create groups in Teacher Dashboard.

1. To Share Resources and Differentiate Instruction
   1. Using Teacher Dashboard's Share Files feature, you can quickly share resources with different groups. For example, you can create an ELL student group, an enrichment group, reading level groups, math skills groups, or groups for projects. Then you can easily share Google Drive files specific to each group as you plan instruction or as students are learning.
2. To Personalize your view of Student Tiles
   1. You can also filter and sort Student Tiles to focus on one or more groups at a time. This allows you to monitor group progress and provide differentiated formative feedback. Learn more about how to filter and sort by group.

Using the Groups Feature to Create Student Groups 

1. Log into Teacher Dashboard through app.hapara.com.

2. Click in your class.

3. On the top right-hand corner of your screen, click the Groups menu.

4. Select New Group.

5. Type a group name in the text box at the top.

6. Click the Color Wheel and select a color for your group.

Note: The color will appear at the top of group members' Student Tiles so you can easily identify their groups.

7. Click the blue +Add button.

8. Select the students for the new group.

9. Click the blue Add Student button at the bottom.

10. Click the X in the top right-hand corner to leave the window.

Managing Groups with the Groups Feature

After you’ve created student groups, you can use the Groups feature to manage the groups. As you move through the school year, you’ll continue to adapt your instruction to fit students’ needs, so you may need to edit groups. For example, if you have reading groups, students may move up to a new reading level. Or you may complete a project and no longer need those groups set up, for instance.

Aside from creating groups, you can use the Groups feature to:

• Delete groups
• Change group names
• Change group colors
• Add or remove students

Deleting a Group

1. Click the Groups menu in Teacher Dashboard.

2. Select Edit Groups.

3. Click on the Trash Can icon next to the group you want to delete.

4. Click the red Delete button.

Changing a Group's Name

1. Click the Groups menu in Teacher Dashboard.

2. Select Edit Groups.

3. Then click the Pencil icon next to the group whose name you want to change.

4. Click inside the text box at the top. Type the new group name.

Changing a Group's Color

1. Click the Groups menu in Teacher Dashboard.

2. Select Edit Groups.

3. Then click the Pencil icon next to the group whose color you want to change.

4. Click on the color wheel at the top. Select a new color.

Adding or Removing Students from Groups

1. Click the Groups menu in Teacher Dashboard.

2. Select Edit Groups.

3. Then click the Pencil icon next to the group.

4. Click the X next to a student's name to remove them from the group.

5. Click the blue +Add button to add students to the group. Then select the students.

Editing an Individual Student's Groups

You can also quickly make a change to one student's groupings. You can do this by using their Student Tile.

1. Find the individual student's Student Tile.

2. Click the Drop - Down Menu at the top right.

3. Select Edit Groups.

4. To add the student to a group, select the group.

5. To remove the student, just deselect the group.