Asking students to work together at the chalkboard is a group activity that does not have the problems sometimes associated with doing group activities; when everyone goes to the board, the leadership of the group remains with the teacher, who will perform most of the facilitation needed.
It is a social way of doing math, but each student does his/her own work, comparing it to other students’ work, but not having to challenge them about it. It encourages students to look at the work of other students and to ask questions, but there is no onus on the group to come to an agreement and present one response to a question.
The teacher can see everyone’s work at once, without having to go around from group to group or individual to individual; it is easy to see immediately who is having trouble and who is not.
Working at the board is easier than working on paper for students, because it is easier to erase a wrong answer and correct it, and students get an immediate response as to the correctness or appropriateness of their answer either from the teacher or by checking with their neighbours. I ask them to take responsibility for making themselves comfortable at the board by finding a long piece of chalk, making sure that an eraser is near at hand, standing beside someone they feel comfortable with, and making sure they can see the work of someone who they think is good at math.
You will find a set of daily activities at the board practicing place value on page 63, and another set practicing operations with fractions on page 83.
Many of the activities in the next chapter, "Real Life Problems," ask students to work in groups or pairs.