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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