The personality of a class

It's funny how one class can have such a different personality than another. This is never more apparent than it is with my two AP Psychology classes this year. My second period has 29 students, many of whom are bright, curious and funny. My sixth period has 24 students, many of whom are also bright, curious and funny. However, my 2nd period is a vastly different group of students as a whole than my sixth is. In my second period class it always takes much longer to complete a lesson. With my sixth period, I am frequently done early, whereas I'm always sneaking a little time from the announcements (shh! don't tell the principal!) to finish up the lesson. Why is that? Well, first of all, any class that has 29 students is going to take longer to do anything - presentations, handing out papers, attendence, etc. But what I've noticed is that the students are just genuinely more curious about the subject than my sixth period is. They ask more questions. They ask more thoughtful questions. They discuss the topic with each other more (and ok, yes, sometimes it just takes a bit longer to get them focused on the topic, but that's to be expected from any class of 29 students, really).

Here's an example:

I assigned debate topics to groups of four students. They were to present their topic, state their opinion, try to persuade the class, etc. The guidelines gave them 30 minutes to have the debate in front of the class, and then they were to take questions from the class, so all in all, they would probably go a little longer than 30 minutes if they followed the guidelines of the assignment.

In my sixth period, we got through four of the groups in about an hour. And while that averages 15 minutes a group, I can tell you right now, that only one group took about 20 minutes, while the other three groups took at most 10 minutes. At the end of each group's turn, when it came to ask questions, it was the typical cricket chirp response (that would be a great giant silence, in case you were wondering).

Today in my 2nd period, we got through three groups. And I had to cut off two of the groups and the question/answer period at the end because we were running out of time.

By the way, they had the same list of topics:

Should the insanity defense be used in criminal trials?
Should animals be used in medical testing/experimentation?
Are humans naturally good?
et cetera and so forth.

So why does this happen, one wonders? What magical grouping of children did I get in 2nd period that I don't have in 6th? I am quite convinced that i have some of the brightest students in the 11th grade class in my sixth period. I have some very bright students in my 2nd as well, but I think that I have something like 8-10 out of sixth, and 5 or 6 in my 2nd. That's nearly 40% of my 6th period and 20% of my 2nd. So what's the story? Here are some theories:

1. Time of day: I have my second period first thing in the morning: 7:30-9:05. Ok, this could actually be an argument for less of a stellar performance, especially given all the research on sleep and teenagers recently. But, I'm getting them first thing, they haven't gone to any other classes, and so maybe haven't had a chance to be exhausted by the rest of their day yet.

2. Number of lower performing students in the class. The percentage of students in my 6th period who have lower skill levels, and weren't prepared for an AP level course is higher than it is in my 2nd period. I also think that many of the students in my 6th period aren't really that interested in the course, and therefore just don't care to participate as much as in my 2nd period. I also think I have a higher number of "performers" in my 2nd period - they are more willing to talk, more willing to take chances than in my 6th period.

3. Time of day part II: By the time I get to my sixth period, it's already the third block of the day (it's 11am), and I'm tired, so perhaps I'm not conveying properly my ideas about how the assignment should go, or something like that.

So the question remains, as it does for any good teacher, how can one avoid this syndrome? How can one alter the personality of a particular class so that the lesson goes equally well in one class period as it does in another? Ah, the eternal question.