Attacking a subject

I always tell my students to attack a subject and it worries me when I get a class of passive students - especially in stage three courses.

Students that are attacking a course:

a) come in bright eyed and bushy tailed
b) are on time
c) have all of their resources (books, calculators, pens ...) ready on day 1
d) attend regularly
e) have pre-read the chapters
f) get stuck into their coursework and are not afraid to have a go
g) natter about their current question with other students

Students that wait to be prompted and expect to be spoonfed, wait for you to find that they are stuck and look like deers in headlights make me concerned. Students that seek personal information from the teacher, natter during instruction, dawdle in late, are disrupting the whole class with nonsense annoy me. They make me think "Is this student in the right place?". This is after all senior school, the pointy end of education.

My 9's, 10's and 2C course are going gangbusters. They demand notes on everything. They attempt questions that I haven't asked them to do as well as the ones I have. They are working on revision books. They are playing with their calculators. Good for them.

My 1B's and 3A courses are another story. Where's the ego? Where's the work ethic? Where is the focus? Hopefullly they're more awake next lesson.