Institutional Context and Attribution
This project was developed in connection with the Diversity, Decolonization, and the French Curriculum (DDFC) initiative, including its 2024 virtual conference, Pooling Open‑Access Resources: Designing for Justice and Access. A full course syllabus is shared through DDFC, and selected materials associated with this project may also be archived through its open‑access resource platform.
This site is intended to complement—not replace—that collective repository, while ensuring sustained, open access to teaching materials amid evolving institutional and funding conditions.
Project Abstract
Languaging at the Library is a process‑based, project‑based grammar and composition initiative that positions libraries, books, and material writing practices at the center of second‑language instruction. Developed for upper‑level French courses, the project replaces a textbook‑driven model with an 18‑lesson instructional parcours examining the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), the history of the BnF, the history of the book, and the history of a single book through archival materials—most notably Marcel Proust’s manuscripts. These lessons, supported by slide decks, instructor scripts, and student note‑taking handouts, contextualize grammatical and rhetorical work within long traditions of writing, revision, preservation, and circulation.
The course culminates in a narrative project in which students write and physically assemble a short book (livre relié), often inspired by children’s literature. The project encourages public circulation of student work—for example, through collaboration with a university library exhibition—thereby framing L2 writing as cultural participation rather than linguistic rehearsal.
Languaging at the Library
Project Summary: Writing, Making, and Circulating Books
Languaging at the Library is a process‑based, project‑based writing initiative designed for upper‑level French grammar and composition courses. The project positions libraries—not textbooks or digital platforms—as central partners in language learning and treats writing not simply as a technical skill, but as a culturally situated practice shaped by readership, material form, and public circulation.
Rather than organizing instruction around isolated grammar exercises, the course structures writing through genres (description, summary, narration, argumentation) and culminates in a sustained narrative assignment in which students write and physically produce a short book (livre relié). Throughout the semester, libraries function as spaces of inquiry, inspiration, and authorization: students read, analyze, draft, revise, and ultimately present their work in dialogue with literary traditions and material book culture.
Why Libraries?
At a moment when language learning is increasingly mediated by screens, platforms, and automated tools, this project deliberately re‑centers physical books, slow writing practices, and library spaces. Libraries are understood not as neutral repositories, but as cultural institutions that shape access to stories and determine how texts are preserved, circulated, and valued.
Early lessons introduce students to:
the history of the book (manuscripts, printing, binding),
the role of national and public libraries—including the Bibliothèque nationale de France,
and the idea of writing as a human practice tied to memory, identity, and cultural transmission.
This framing prepares students to see their own writing not as disposable coursework, but as something that can endure, circulate, and matter beyond the classroom.
The 18‑Lesson Parcours: Writing Through the History of Books and Libraries
A central component of Languaging at the Library is a scaffolded instructional parcours consisting of approximately 18 lessons devoted to the history of books, libraries, and writing practices. These lessons provide the conceptual groundwork that makes the livre relié project legible and meaningful for students.
Rather than treating the creative project as an isolated assignment, the parcours situates student writing within a long historical and institutional continuum of textual production. Students are invited to see themselves not as beginners “practicing French,” but as participants in an enduring human practice: writing, making, preserving, and circulating texts.
The parcours is modular and adaptable, and includes:
slide‑based presentations (PPTs),
instructor scripts and teaching notes to guide pacing and discussion,
student note‑taking handouts that emphasize observation, reflection, and synthesis rather than content memorization.
Instructors may teach the full sequence, select individual lessons, or reorganize the materials according to course goals and time constraints.
The lessons are organized around four interrelated histories:
1. The Bibliothèque nationale de France as an institution
Students explore the BnF not merely as a repository of texts, but as a civic and cultural project shaped by power, access, preservation, and public responsibility. Concepts such as legal deposit (dépôt légal), national memory, and cultural stewardship frame writing as something that can be collected, conserved, and shared at scale.
2. The history of the BnF
Selected moments—from royal collections and early modern state control of print to contemporary public access—help students understand how libraries evolve alongside political, technological, and cultural transformations, raising questions about authority, canon formation, and whose texts are preserved.
3. The history of the book (L’histoire du livre)
Through manuscripts, early printed books, bindings, marginalia, and page layout, students encounter books as crafted objects shaped by labor, tools, and material constraints. This perspective directly prepares students for the materially engaged work of the livre relié.
4. The history of a book: Proust as a case study
Drawing on archival materials related to À la recherche du temps perdu, students see writing as recursive, provisional, and often unfinished. Drafts, deletions, pasted fragments, and delayed publication demystify authorship and normalize revision—an especially important reframing for intermediate L2 writers.
Pedagogical Rationale
Contextualizing student writing in this way serves several pedagogical goals:
Authorizing student voices
Encountering canonical authors as revisers and decision‑makers—not idealized geniuses—frees students from the myth of perfect fluency and immediate mastery. Writing is framed as participation rather than performance.
Making writing visible as work
The parcours foregrounds labor, process, and materiality, countering dominant narratives of frictionless, screen‑based writing. This aligns with the project’s emphasis on slow drafting, handwriting, and physical making.
Linking grammar and composition to culture
Grammatical choices are treated not as abstract rules, but as historically and culturally situated practices that shape meaning, readership, and circulation.
Preparing the livre relié
The parcours is deliberately front‑loaded: when students reach the narrative and book‑making stages, they already possess a conceptual vocabulary for thinking about form, audience, revision, and durability.
Why This Matters for L2 Writers
For second‑language writers in particular, the parcours helps shift key assumptions:
from “I am practicing” to “I am participating,”
from “this is just an assignment” to “this is part of a tradition,”
from “my writing is temporary” to “my writing can endure.”
The historical and institutional framing supports the project’s broader aim: cultivating confidence, symbolic competence, and a legitimate authorial stance in another language.
Narrative Writing and Children’s Literature
Another core component asks students to write a short narrative—often inspired by the tradition of the conte or children’s literature—and to imagine a specific readership. This assignment is preceded by readings from both canonical and contemporary texts (e.g., Perrault, La Belle et la Bête, Le Petit Prince, Akissi) and by theoretical reflection on storytelling, transmission, and variation.
A key framing text is a journalistic article from Marianne that challenges the infantilization of children’s culture and highlights the artistic and intellectual ambition of contemporary youth literature. The article references the Salon du Livre et de la Presse Jeunesse, held annually in France each November, situating children’s books within a living cultural ecosystem of writers, editors, festivals, and readers. This context authorizes students—especially L2 writers—to take their stories seriously and to write not “less,” but with clarity, intention, and respect for an intelligent reader.
Process‑Based Writing and Authorial Development
The project emphasizes process over product. Students:
draft initial versions by hand in class without digital aids,
revise selectively and reflectively,
workshop ideas through guided, low‑stakes activities,
and complete later revisions independently.
Feedback focuses on meaning, voice, structure, and reader experience rather than exhaustive error correction. This approach normalizes uncertainty, revision, and incompleteness as part of real writing practices and supports the development of an authorial posture rather than a purely corrective mindset.
The Livre Relié: From Text to Object
A distinctive element of the project is the transformation of the written narrative into a handmade book. Students make decisions about layout, pagination, white space, images, and rhythm, discovering how material form shapes meaning.
This stage functions as a powerful mode of revision: when students must decide how words live on the page, they naturally reconsider what matters most in their story. The book is treated not as an art object for its own sake, but as a meaning‑making form that invites careful attention to readers and reading.
Public Circulation and Reflection
In many iterations, student books are displayed or shared in library spaces (e.g., classroom libraries, university exhibitions, curated displays), reinforcing the idea that student writing belongs in the public sphere. Even when exhibition is optional, the prospect of real readers profoundly shapes student engagement.
The project typically concludes with a reflective text in which students articulate what they learned about writing, revision, readership, and the book as an object. Reflection is treated as an integral component of learning rather than an add‑on.
Adaptability and Open Use
Languaging at the Library was designed to be adaptable across:
proficiency levels,
languages,
institutional contexts,
and course goals.
The core commitments—process‑based writing, library collaboration, material engagement with texts, and audience awareness—can be scaled while preserving the project’s pedagogical integrity. What remains central is the invitation for students to see themselves not only as language learners, but as writers whose words are allowed to circulate.
How to Use These Materials
The instructional parcours functions as a conceptual and cultural scaffold rather than a linear unit that must be completed in full. Its primary purpose is to reframe writing—especially for L2 writers—by situating grammar and composition within long histories of books, authorship, revision, and libraries.
Each lesson includes a slide deck, instructor scripts or teaching notes, and student handouts. Instructors may teach the full sequence, select individual lessons, or interleave them with other content. The parcours is particularly effective when introduced before sustained writing begins, as it establishes a shared vocabulary for thinking about form, process, readership, and circulation.
The livre relié project grows directly out of the intellectual work of the parcours. By the time students begin their narratives, they have already encountered books as crafted objects, authors as revisers, and libraries as cultural institutions that authorize and preserve texts. Instructors often return explicitly to parcours concepts during drafting, revision, and book‑making, reinforcing the idea that material form shapes meaning.
These materials are intentionally modular. Instructors may adjust the number of lessons, depth of historical coverage, narrative genre, book format, or degree of public visibility while maintaining the project’s core commitments.
When possible, some form of public circulation—library collaboration, exhibition, classroom library, or showcase—strengthens the project by affirming that student writing is meant to circulate rather than disappear at the semester’s end.
The materials hosted here may be used independently or integrated into existing courses. Instructors interested in seeing a full course design that incorporates the complete parcours, genre‑based writing sequence, and public exhibition component are invited to contact the project author. A full syllabus and these materials situated within a complete course design have also been shared through the Diversity, Decolonization, and the French Curriculum (DDFC) initiative.
Contact
Margaret Keneman
kenemanml@cofc.edu