Pamela,
After many years of trying different ways to bring grammar into the
developmental and freshman comp course at the community college where I
teach, this is what I am doing now: I concentrate mostly on the subject and
verb; I go back and forth between conventional issues involving subject and
verb (fragments, s-f agreement, etc.) and rhetorical and stylistic issues
(active voice, know-new information, end focus, links among subjects for
coherence). To help students find verbs, I ask them to insert "not" into
the sentence. Finally, I've stopped using a grammar text--at least for the
time being. Students write their own, and I use their papers and the other
course reading as examples for all the lessons.
Hope this helps.
Brock Haussamen
-----Original Message-----
From: Donehew, Pam [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2000 9:40 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: My dog moaned, its tail stuck...
I have been a member of this listserv for some time, and read the postings
with great interest. I teach Developmental English at a two year Technical
College. My students range from 8 - 80, with English skills from the second
grade to the tenth grade level. Additionally, I have moved from the north
to the south where I find the grammar to be quite "different." This unique
population of students makes teaching grammar challenging. I would
appreciate any advice on approaches to teaching this population. I have a
computer lab for my students and incorporate as much technology into my
lessons as possible. I would also appreciate any information on web sites
that would benefit my students, and myself as well. Teaching noun absolutes
would be well above my students developmental abilities. I find simple verb
and pronoun concepts to be difficult for the majority of my classes. I will
appreciate all input.
Pamela K. Donehew
Reading/English Instructor
West Georgia Technical College
303 Fort Drive
LaGrange, GA 30240
706-845-4323 X5714
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Vavra [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2000 1:44 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: My dog moaned, its tail stuck...
Sharon,
Like Amy Benjamin, I applaud your interest in teaching grammar, but
unlike Amy, I see no reason for teaching the noun absolute to sixth graders.
Why do you think you should? The research on natural syntactic development,
although still sketchy, suggests that the noun absolute does not appear,
except as formulas, before ninth grade or so. And, as I suggest in Teaching
Grammar as <http://www2.pct.edu/courses/evavra/TGLA/Index.htm> a Liberating
Art, the developmental theories of Vygotsky and Piaget suggest that the noun
absolute is beyond the "zone of proximal development" of sixth graders. It
is true that, if you introduce the construction to them, some of them will
pick it up and perhaps even apply it in their own writing for a little
while, but the theory suggests that that learning will not last. On the
other hand, presenting sixth graders with grammatical constructions that are
beyond their zone will only confuse and frustrate them.
Wouldn't it be better to devote the time to subordinate clauses (which
the research of Hunt, Loban, and O'Donnell suggests are just coming into the
zone of sixth graders)? As I have noted before on this list, many TEACHERS
have told me that they cannot recognize subordinate (or main) clauses. You
could do your students a tremendous service by helping them to learn the
distinctions (which would also help them through the problems of fragments,
comma-splices, and run-ons). And you could help them learn how to revise
their writing by combining two main clauses by making one of them
subordinate. Loban's research suggests that exactly this type of combining
begins to occur naturally in sixth and seventh grades, but students'
problems in learning this are reflected in the complaint of many seventh
grade teachers that their students write too many subordinate clause
fragments.
Amy has explained the noun absolute very well, and should one of your
students use one and ask about what it is, there is no reason not to tell
them that it is a nominative absolute, which is an advanced construction,
but as I noted, the research suggests that if you force the construction on
them, you will be doing more harm than good. Finally, I would like to invite
you, and anyone else who is interested, to use the KISS Grammar Site
http://www2.pct.edu/courses/evavra/KISS.htm
<http://www2.pct.edu/courses/evavra/KISS.htm> . It should provide you with
explanations for any constructions that appear in your students' writing,
and I have set up a guest discussion book where you can post questions and
get an answer in terms of KISS Grammar.
Ed V.
Sharon Godiska wrote:
I am sixth grade language arts teacher, and well,
would love to use this listserv as an aid to the
grammatical questions that I come across from time to
time. Actually, my question actually stems from the
current discussion on the "nominative absolute." I
hate to admit this, but I need this explained in more
elementary terms. Basically, how could I explain this
sentence to a sixth grader? If I had to analyze it on
my own, I would probably say there is a very simple
independent clause and some sort of dependent clause,
although lacking a subordinate conjunction.
You asked. Here I am.
Thanks,
Sharon
>
> --- Reinhold Schlieper <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2000 15:42:48 -0500
> > Reply-to: Assembly for the Teaching of English
> > Grammar <[log in to unmask]>
> > From: Reinhold Schlieper
> > <[log in to unmask]>
> > Organization: Embry-Riddle University
> > Subject: Re: My dog moaned, its tail stuck...
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> >
> > Ablativus absolutus, if you're more
> Latin-oriented.
> >
> > ==Reinhold
> >
> > "Richard Veit, UNCW English Department" wrote:
> > >
> > > At 02:22 AM 12/04/2000 -0500, Ed Vavra wrote:
> > >
> > > > Question: Is the following sentence an example
> > of a comma-splice, or
> > > > an
> > > > example of a well-written sentence?
> > > >
> > > > My dog moaned, its tail stuck between its back
> > legs.
> > >
> > > That's a pretty standard example of a
> "nominative
> > absolute." That's
> > > the term I learned in grade school in the
> fifties
> > and find indexed in
> > > Roberts' 1954 Understanding Grammar. The term
> > "absolute" is used in
> > > several more recent grammar texts, but neither
> > term is indexed in
> > > Greenbaum's Oxford English Grammar. Curious
> minds
> > wanting to know, is
> > > there other terminology for such constructions?
> > >
> > > Dick Veit
> >
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>
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