Ask HN: How to help someone learn to code?

My girlfriend is currently struggling with some courses that require a basic understanding of how to write code. It's not so much that she can't learn the syntax of whatever language is used, her difficulties start at a lower level, i.e. at what one might call algorithmic thinking.

I'm having a hard time helping and explaining these things to her, so I was wondering whether someone here knows some literature or MOOCs or tricks or whatever that focuses on teaching total beginners, ideally in a language-agnostic way.

Thanks for any help!