During the elementary school years, children become increasingly facile users of a broad array of techniques for remembering information. Unfortunately, however, relatively little is known about the developmental course of these skills within individual children, and even less is understood about the factors that influence the emergence, modification, and effectiveness of mnemonic strategies. To address these issues, Peter Ornstein has launched a longitudinal study in which a sample of 108 first-grade students was recruited from 14 classrooms in four different schools. These children were then followed through second grade, along with an additional group recruited in second grade to bring the total sample to 150 students. These children were assessed three times each year on a wide range of memory tasks. A fourth assessment was given at the end of each school year to provide a measure of language and achievement level. In addition, in order to understand the forces that propel developmental change, an extensive series of observations has been carried out in the classrooms of the participants, with particular emphasis being placed on the nature of “teacher talk” about remembering, the memory demands that are expressed, the specific strategies that are modeled or discussed, and the expectations that are transmitted by teachers.