To improve the quality of our instruction and to contribute to student success, we designed an instructional development program using peer mentoring and observation grounded in evidence-based practices. We identified three methods of peer observation and mentoring to create an innovative progressively in-depth program that helps librarians understand what is happening in the classroom, and works within a community of practice to identify ways to improve the quality of our instruction. These tools, used in higher education, were then customized to work for information literacy instruction: Teaching Squares, the Teaching Practices Inventory - Information Literacy Instruction, and the Classroom Observation Protocol for Information Literacy. The customized tools help librarians identify evidence-based practices, enable them to understand what occurred in their classrooms, and lead to student-focused teaching. This article discusses the development of these tools and initial findings.