Welcome Sharon, I applaud your willingness to teach the nominative absolute to sixth graders! You may, however, find that it's a bit sophisticated for them. I suggest that you refer to this structure as a noun plus a participle (ing or ed word). Try sticking with the animal examples: The raccoon, its nose buried in the garbage, ignored us when we opened the garage door. Feathers fluttering, the canary flew out of its cage. Good luck, and may I recommend Harry Noden's Image Grammar: Using Grammatical Structures to Teach Writing, published by Heinemann. Amy Benjamin To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/