Shelley Hale Lee - At Work (Great Stories: Beginner)

Dear At Work readers,

I hope you enjoy the stories in this book. You can use the stories in many different ways. You can read silently, or out loud to a friend. You can read into a voice recorder and then listen to your pronunciation.

In this book, you will read about the Mendez family, the Yousef family, the Wilson family, and the Martin family.

• Vera and Ricardo Mendez have two children, Carmen and David.
• Dina and Abdul Yousef have three children, Zara, Hassan and Fariba.
• Pam and Bob Wilson have two children, Nan and Dan.
• Jan and Jim Martin have one son, Tim.

At Work has stories with vocabulary for everyday situations. You can practice conversations with some of the stories. The stories may be easy to understand. You and your family might be in some of the same situations as the characters.

The stories will help you read fluently. Many common English words are in the stories. It will become easier and faster for you to read these common words. This book will help you practice the sounds of English, especially the vowel sounds. You will read short words but also longer words and sentences.

I hope you enjoy reading At Work!

Shelley Lee, Author

At Work features and reviews many of the same vowel sounds taught in At the Lake and Other Stories for Adult Emergent Readers (Lee, 2020).

Here are the main spelling/sound patterns and some example words from At Work. You could model them in advance for students before they read, or answer questions later.

• short a:ask, grand, plan
• short e:get, sell, next
• short i:kit, six, milk
• short o:stop, boss, shop
• short u:cut, drum, rush

• long a: a_e, ai, ay:wave, paint, day
• long e: ee, ea, y, ie:keep, meal, busy, piece
• long i: i_e, igh, y, ie:five, night, cry, fried
• long o: o_e, ow, -old:close, window, old
• long u: u_e, ew, ou, oo:use, news, you, noon

• all, alk:fall, talk
• ou, ow:sound, how
• 2 sounds of oo:cook, scoop
• r-controlled vowels: ar, or, er/ir/ur:start, order, server, first, hurt

• ch:kitchen, chicken, check, lunch
• sh:shop, rush, trash, paintbrush
• th, voiced:then, this, other, another
• th, unvoiced:thank, three, month, things

• I will = Ill
• I am = Im
• she is = shes
• we are = were
• that is = thats
• can not = cant
• it is = its
• do not = dont

• Ricardos answers
• Bobs Fix-It Shop
• Zaras parents
• Tims grandparents
• Dinas job
• doctors office

You could teach these words in advance, let learners use a bilingual dictionary, or just be ready to answer questions.

1. The Job Application: restaurant, expensive, different, server, application, questions
2. The Interview: favorite, customers, important, friendly, information
3. Getting Ready: repairs, bicycles, motorcycles, hammers, paintbrushes
4. The Grand Opening: opening, congratulations, parents, inside, around
5. The Lunch Rush: window, number, extra, business, someone, quickly
6. The 100th Customer: enough, regular
7. Zaras Idea: student, guitar, dishwasher, grandparents, babysitter, birthday, special
8. Babysitting Tim: apartment, bathroom, kitchen, playground, sidewalk, higher, bandages, sometimes, worried
9. A New Computer: patients, appointments, manager, computer, difficult, training, tomorrow, something
10. Dinas New Job: handyman, welcome
11. Stress at Work: mechanic, garage, enjoy, sandwich, music, lessons, piano, agree
12. Bob Has a Problem: machines, husband

Many people like to eat at Kates Diner. It is a good restaurant. The food tastes good, and its not too expensive.

Now, Kate has an idea. She wants to open a food truck. The food truck can go to different places in town. The truck can sell food from Kates Diner: chicken, fish, and ice cream.

Ricardo Mendez wants to work for Kates Diner. He likes the food at Kates Diner, and he wants a new job. He wants to be the server for the food truck.

Ricardo goes to Kates Diner on Monday afternoon. Kate comes out of the back office. She says, Ricardo, its nice to see you. Are you here about the food truck job?

Ricardo says, Yes, I am. Here is my application.

Kate looks at his application. She says, Good! Can I ask you some questions?

Ricardo says, Yes, you can.