The activities manual features homework assignments and supplemental exercises suitable for first year students of Italian. The progression of the material is tried and tested, and begins with an introductory lesson on the alphabet and pronunciation, greetings and salutations, numbers, days of the week, and months of the year.

It emphasizes the most important grammar points covered in the main text, such as verb tenses, pronouns, comparative and superlative adjectives, and prepositions.

Student friendly and extensively class-tested, the Elementary Italian Student Activities Manual was written for college-level beginning Italian courses that meet three days a week over a fifteen week semester, but it can easily be adapted to a quarter system.

Jessica Greenfield earned bachelor's degrees in Italian studies and Classical Civilizations at the University of California, Berkeley, her master's degree in Italian Studies at the University of Notre Dame, and her Ph.D. in Romance Languages, with a specialization in Italian, at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Dr. Greenfield is a faculty member in the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of North Texas, where she also serves as the Italian Language Program Coordinator. The author of numerous articles, reviews, and textbook contributions, she has also presented at regional and national conferences. Her research interests include modern Italian literature, Sicilian writers, and the Italian realist writer Giovanni Verga.