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 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. 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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> >
> >
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