As I watched this video I found it very interesting and I was able to relate to this assessment style. We use the Fountas and Pinnell kits to test reading comprehension and use the word list that is provided to determine where to start testing. I did find it interesting that the assessor wanted the child to read the word list as fast as she could and she was timed; this is something that I am not encouraged to do when I give reading assessments. My fear with timing a student reading a word list and assessing their words per minute is that the words are not in context and then they are only being assessed on word call and not comprehension. I only use the word list provided by the F&P kit to give me a baseline in order to know which leveled book test to give the student.
I do assess my students frequently in order to meet their needs and plan instruction based on what skills they need to work on. I use running records/records on the go to assess fluency and comprehension as students read independently. This is the only way to truly gauge and diagnose and identify what skills students are continuously using and what skills students need to be retaught or addressed.
I do agree that reading comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading and students who struggle with decoding lose the fluency piece of reading and then comprehension is lost. I have seen this first hand and I try my best to make sure that I teach decoding skills to those students. Usually I see this happen with ELL students or students who hear or speak another language at home but may not be labeled as ELL.
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