Ed, sorry to be late replying to your questions about my posting on noun
absolutes. The sentences I quoted were all written by 7th graders who had
not been specifically taught the construction. Most of them were good
readers (usually of fantasy) and had chosen to write a story for their
weekend journal assignment. Could it be true that good readers who are
focusing on telling a story that they visualize strongly are going to draw
on patterns they have internalized in reading? Our study of sentence
diagramming and clause analysis (see my article in Syntax) stops short of
this more sophisticated construction. In 10th grade I point out to the
class these kinds of sentences and  have them practice imitating them,
which they enjoy doing.
        I too am interested in the 24 sentence patterns. I think sentence
imitation works best when you lift sentences from the literature the
students are reading. That way they see the effectiveness of the
construction and the point of learning and practicing it. When dealing
with present participial phrases, for example, you can study examples
where the phrase is at the beginning, middle, or end of the sentence, and
discuss how the phrase is related to the main clause (cause, effect,
simultaneity, etc.). Again, you will probably want to point out the
effectiveness of word choice, use of simile, or other effective elements
displayed by the sentence. If students can see the disparate elements of
writing as contributing to a powerful effect, they will be less averse to
studying them.

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