I will be teaching a class of Pd newbies next month. Does anyone know/have any simple examples/patches suitable for introductory assignments?

just use the manual intro fist start with hello world.pd

I've taken a couple of undergraduate courses that teach Max/MSP. They both started using message/event objects first (i.e. no audio objects) to make simple random MIDI note generators, then moving to basic sequencers reading from a table. All just sending MIDI notes to other software like Reason or SimpleSynth. I thought it was a pretty good approach to get started. Audio stuff started with playing back samples, and synthesis never got too technical for an introductory class. Mostly just a little dabbling in subtractive synthesis, iirc. Homework assignments were basically "make something that does this" with a basic description of how to go about making it. Students were encouraged to go through the tutorials on their own.

Hope that helps at all.

what he said that a good way and I found max/msp classes in Orlando weee wee 8p

if you can also set your own marking criteria, then i would suggest to add a good percentage of marks to 'neat, legible patching'.

the biggest trouble i see with new users, is that their patches get very messy. this is bad for them, as it makes it harder for them to progress, and it is also bad for you as a teacher, because it makes them harder to mark. it is also much easier to find troubles when the patches are neat.

i'd suggest perhaps as much as 30% of the marks going towards that goal.