Monthly Archives: October 2023

This week’s Text is a quartet of context clues worksheets on words that represent important concepts to me–the idea of doing something conscientiously and well. For starters, here is the worksheet on the noun competence. It means “the quality or state of being competent.” And herein lies the challenge of teaching these words, I think: one must understand the meaning of the adjective competent (see below) to understand the noun competence.

Next up is the antonym to competence with this worksheet on the noun incompetence. This one means “the state or fact of being incompetent.” Once more, we’re stuck with the problem limned above: one must know the adjective incompetent to understand the noun incompetence (which is the problem that drives this relatively prolix and arguably nonsensical blog post). In any case, this worksheet, especially when used with the document above on competence, offers a solid opportunity to teach or reinforce the meaning of the prefix in.

Now let’s move on to the adjective that correspond to these nouns with this worksheet on competent. This worksheet points students toward the most common definitions of this word, to wit, “having requisite or adequate ability or qualities” and “having the capacity to function or develop in a particular way.”

And once again, you’ll find the antonym to competent in this worksheet on the adjective incompetent. It means “inadequate to or unsuitable for a particular purpose,” “lacking the qualities needed for effective action,” and “unable to function properly.” These definitions may require more concrete examples–of which, both fortunately and unfortunately, there are plenty in our public life.

Finally, to aid you in the work on interpreting the words in these documents, here is a lexicon for all four of these words.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.