New shooters have A LOT racing around in their head already (breath control, sight alignment, sight picture, grip, finger placement, trigger squeeze, etc...), so giving them a large, blank piece of paper to hit helps build confidence. I use flip chart paper. It's large and blank - no distractions, no expectations or judgements. As long as the first shot goes down range, I don't really care where on the paper it hit. I just want them to do everything safely, get over the 'shock' and then I can start making corrections.
.22s are great for new shooters and folks that are timid. - just have to make sure that the pistol and ammo are reliable. Sounds like common sense, but I've seen more than a few folks trying to teach with big name 22s that are jam-o-matics (Sig Mosquito comes to mind). That's fine if you want to teach mag changes and/or tap-rack drills, but not for those we are trying to bring into the fold.