Running group work on a projector: a quick setup guide

By the SortMyClass team · Published 9 July 2026 · Updated 20 July 2026

The slowest minute of any group task is the first one: students queuing to ask which group they're in, while you read names off a sheet like a gate agent. Putting the groups on the projector (dealt live, big enough to read from the back) deletes that minute entirely. Here's the routine, plus the hiccups worth knowing about in advance.

There's a second, quieter benefit: dealing on screen makes the process public property. Nobody suspects a list you visibly didn't write, so the fairness argument dies before it starts: the projector isn't just a display, it's a witness.

Before the lesson (two minutes, once)

• Save the class list in the tool, one name per line, straight from your register. It stays saved in the browser on that computer, so this is a one-off per class.
• Set your rules quietly now (keep-apart pairs, buddy pairs), not while thirty people watch the screen. Rules persist, so next lesson they're already in place.
• Load the page before you need it. Once loaded, the tool keeps working even if the school wifi has one of its moments.

In the lesson: the 60-second routine

1. Mark absences as the class settles: tap the missing names so they sit out of the draw.
2. Announce the shape: "Groups of four, so seven groups today." Saying it before the draw is part of being seen to be fair.
3. Go fullscreen and deal. Names land one at a time; the little bit of theatre is what makes the class watch the process instead of arguing with the result.
4. "Tables in sixty seconds." The groups stay up on screen; nobody needs to ask anything. Start the timer.

The first time you run it

Tell the class what's changing and why, once: "Groups are drawn on screen from now on. It's random, it's the same for everyone, and nobody gets left till last." Expect one groan and at least one "can we pick our own?", which gets the honest answer: no, because picking is the part that goes wrong. The first deal takes the longest, because everyone's watching the novelty; by the third lesson the reveal takes fifteen seconds and nobody argues with the screen. Give the routine two lessons before you judge it.

After the reveal: moving thirty bodies

The deal solves who; you still direct the where. Number or colour the tables once and keep the mapping forever: Group 1 is always the window table, and regulars stop needing to be told. Send groups to tables rather than letting groups form in the aisle: "found your name? go to your table, talk on the way if you like, working in sixty seconds." Bags stay where they are for short tasks; nothing clogs a changeover like twenty bags in transit. And keep the groups on screen, or frozen, until everyone's seated, because the moment the screen changes, three students forget everything.

Making it readable from the back row

• Use a proper presentation mode (fullscreen, dark background, huge names) rather than squinting at the setup screen. In SortMyClass the Present button does exactly this: nothing on screen but the groups.
• First names only where your class allows it; "Aleksandra W." beats a full name that wraps to two lines. The display scales text to fit, but shorter names read faster.
• Old projector, washed-out colours? High-contrast mode helps, but also just close the blinds nearest the screen, the free fix everyone forgets.

The usual hiccups

• A student arrives late. Un-mark them as absent and re-deal if the lesson hasn't started moving, or simply add them to the smallest group and say so. Don't re-deal groups that are already working; a re-deal costs you the fairness credit of the first draw.
• "I can't work with him." Said across the room, post-deal. The live answer is calm and small: "the draw is the draw, let's see how ten minutes goes." The real answer happens after the lesson, in the keep-apart rules, where it should have been all along. Don't renegotiate a public draw in public; that's the one move that unravels it.
• Wifi dies mid-lesson. If the page was open, the deal still works: everything runs on the classroom machine, nothing lives on a server.
• The class computer is ancient. This is common and fine: a lightweight one-page tool loads in about a second on a 2015 laptop. If your interactive whiteboard runs a browser, tap targets are big enough to use it directly.
• Projector refuses to cooperate at all. Print is your parachute: one page, big names, hand it to a student to read out. Same groups, same fairness, zero technology.

A once-a-term hardware check

• Know your resolution. Many classroom laptops still run 1366×768, and projectors add their own scaling. Open the tool once, deal a dummy class, and walk to the back of the room. If anything's squint-worthy, bump the browser zoom (Ctrl and +); the layout is built to cope.
• Find the freeze button. Most projector remotes can freeze the image. Freeze on the groups and your laptop is free for the register, email, or the next resource without broadcasting your inbox to Year 8.
• Mind what else is on screen. A class list is students' personal data. Fullscreen presentation mode shows nothing but first names and group colours; that's deliberate. The setup screen, notifications and tabs are for your eyes, so present, then freeze or fullscreen before turning away.

Sound: on or off?

The deal's soft tick is theatre, and theatre is audience-dependent. Year 7 lean forward for it; a Year 13 revision class will give you the look. There's a toggle for a reason. If the room's interactive whiteboard has feeble speakers, off is also simply kinder than distortion.

The whole point is momentum: the lesson's collaborative part starts thirty seconds after you decide it should, and the "which group am I in" queue never forms. After a fortnight the routine runs itself: students watch the deal, find their colour, and move, because that's simply how group work starts in your room.