Spelling and reading
Spelling thatexplains itself.Reading thatreads along.
A red cross on a spelling test teaches a child nothing, and parents rarely know what to practise at home. Kindergarten to Year 10, built for tutoring centres: every miss is marked letter by letter and explained, every book has questions that send children back to the text, and parents and tutors see what to work on next.
List 4: Doubling and sound-alikes
Word 3 of 16“Please keep the red pencils ________from the blue ones.”
Nearly. 7 of 8 letters in the right place.
Memory trick: there is a rat in sep-a-rat-e.
Your level
Level 11 (Wattle)
4,400+
spelling words
276
spelling lists
330+
illustrated books
2,400+
reading questions
The spelling coach
A red cross teaches nothing. So every miss says why.
- 01
Hear it
The word, then the word in a sentence, then the word again. No spelling it out loud to give it away.
- 02
Spell it
Typed or written with a pencil. Every letter is marked: right, missing, extra or swapped.
- 03
See why
The rule, the word's parts and a memory trick, in Australian spelling. Missed words come back tomorrow.
List 4: Doubling and sound-alikes
Word 3 of 16“Please keep the red pencils ________from the blue ones.”
Nearly. 7 of 8 letters in the right place.
separate can be said two ways: SEP-rit (apart) or SEP-a-rate (to divide). It is spelt the same either way.
Memory trick: there is a rat in sep-a-rat-e.
It comes back in My tricky words tomorrow.
The weekly routine
A week that ends better than it started.
A list handed out on Monday is forgotten by Friday. The routine schools use with a spelling list is built in: a tutor sets the week's list in one tap, and the homework is only done when the test is.
- Monday1
Try it
Spell the list cold. It shows what to work on.
Score60% - Tuesday to Thursday2
Practise
Two activities, the missed words first.
Look, cover, writeSpot the spellingUnjumbleFill the gap - Friday3
Test
The same list, on a later day.
Score90%
Tricky words come back
A word missed once and never seen again stays missed. Every word a child misses returns in My tricky words the next day, then less and less often as they get it right.
Seven ways to practise
The spelling test, look cover write check, spot the spelling, unjumble, fill the gap, proofread and meaning match, with real misspellings as the wrong answers.
Lists in phonics order
276 lists and more than 4,400 words. The early lists follow a synthetic phonics order, and every word in them can be sounded out with the sounds taught so far.
Reading
Read it, hear it, find it in the text.
Struggling readers get stuck on a word and give up. Here every book is read aloud on request, every word explains itself with a tap, and a wrong answer sends the child back to the sentence that holds the right one.
The Night Walk at Camp
We set off at eight o'clock in single file, our torches making yellow circles on the track. At first, every sound made me jump.
“Look up,” whispered Ms Nguyen, pointing her torch at the trees. Two bright eyes blinked down at us. A ringtail possum!
Whose eyes were in the tree?
Why did the walk back feel so different?
An illustrated library
More than 330 passages across Kindergarten to Year 10, each with its own picture: stories, poems, plays, letters, news reports, persuasive and information texts, and decodable readers for the youngest.
Read to me
A child stuck on one word gives up on the whole page. Any passage is read aloud at three speeds, and tapping a word says it and gives its meaning. The youngest readers can hear every question and answer choice too.
Questions that send them back to the text
Guessing teaches nothing about reading closely. More than 2,400 questions in three kinds: right there, think and search, author and me. After a wrong answer, "Show me where" lights up the part of the text to read again before the second go.
A level that moves with the child
Three strong books in a row step a child up a stage and three hard ones ease them back, and a level set by a tutor always wins.
Fluency, measured properly
A grown-up times a one-minute read and taps the words missed, and the result is compared with widely used published oral reading fluency norms (from US data) for that point in the school year.
Phonics check practice
Forty real and made-up words in the format of the NSW Year 1 Phonics Screening Check, in 2 word sets, read to an adult who marks them. The result names the sounds to practise.
The library
More than 330 books, each with its own picture.
Stories, poems, plays, letters, news reports and information texts from Kindergarten to Year 10, and decodable readers for the youngest.
The Night Walk at Camp
Banksia
Grandpa's Garden
Wattle
A Night Owl
Seedling
The Grumpy Goat
Gumnut
The Last Platypus in the Creek
Banksia
The Cubby House Club
Wattle
At the Library
Gumnut
The Backyard Echidna
Wattle
Levels, not school years
Every child climbs. Nobody is labelled.
Children see eleven bush stages and their level number, never their school year, so a Year 5 reading at Year 3 is simply on Wattle. Three strong books in a row move them up a stage; a level a tutor sets always wins.
The child sees
You are on Level 11 (Wattle).
Three great books in a row. You are ready for Banksia!
The parent sees
Reading: Year 3 (mid)
79 words correct a minute, a little below most readers at the middle of Year 3.
Seedling
Levels 1 to 3
Sprout
Levels 4 to 6
Gumnut
Levels 7 to 9
Wattle
Levels 10 to 12
YouBanksia
Levels 13 to 15
NextBottlebrush
Levels 16 to 18
Waratah
Levels 19 to 21
Grevillea
Levels 22 to 24
Paperbark
Levels 25 to 27
Ironbark
Levels 28 to 30
Red Gum
Levels 31 to 33
Blue Gum
Levels 34 to 36
Mountain Ash
Levels 37 to 39
📈 Spelling and reading progress
5 activities this week12
lists done
86%
best score
5
in review
24
mastered
Reading aloud, words correct a minute
How to help Mia this week
- 5 tricky words are due. Five minutes on My tricky words keeps them from slipping.
- Talk about why the author wrote it: to tell, to persuade or to entertain?
Parents and tutors
Parents ask what to practise. Now they know, this week.
Levels, not school years
A child told they read "below their year" stops wanting to read. Children see named stages and level numbers, never their school year, so a child reading below their year is never labelled by it. Parents and tutors see the year beside it.
Their own progress
My words and books shows a child the books they have read, the lists they have finished, the tricky words they have beaten and the badges they have earned.
A companion that cheers
The child's Bushmate celebrates at the end of a list, a test and a book, and never makes a low score feel like a failure.
What to do this week
Families want to help and do not know where to start. Parents and tutors see lists finished, the kinds of spelling mistakes, reading by question type, fluency over time and up to three plain next steps.
Nothing in spelling and reading is marked by AI.
A child's voice never leaves the device: recordings for read-aloud practice stay in the browser and are thrown away.
No advertising, and nothing is sold on a child's screen.
In short
Spelling and reading
XTutio's spelling and reading runs from Kindergarten to Year 10: every missed word is marked letter by letter and explained, every book has questions that send children back to the text, and parents and tutors see what to work on next. It sits beside typing and the maths tools, a child's Bushmate grows as they read, and parents follow it in the parent app.
Questions centres ask
Which years does it cover?
Kindergarten to Year 10.
How does the spelling coach help?
It marks a missed word letter by letter and explains why the word is spelt that way.
Is it included for tutoring families?
Yes. Maths and English, spelling and reading among them, are included for every family your centre tutors.
