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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